State Senators Biss, Collins to Discuss Apparent Racial Bias in Car Insurance Industry Today
ProPublica investigation exposing disparities based on ZIP code prompts new legislation
CHICAGO, IL – Illinois State Senators Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) and Jacqueline Y. Collins (D-Chicago) this morning will discuss troubling new revelations of apparent racial bias by car insurers that charge higher premiums to Chicago-area customers who live in predominantly minority neighborhoods.
The senators, longtime champions of racial and economic justice, also will introduce legislation to bar the kind of discrimination that was exposed in an April 5 joint investigation by ProPublica and Consumer Reports.
They will be joined by representatives of numerous Chicago organizations that advocate for racial and economic justice and were troubled by the findings.
Collins also has introduced legislation to bar insurance companies from using credit scores as a factor in calculating car insurance rates, a practice that is allowed in Illinois.
- Read the ProPublica-Consumer Reports investigation here: http://bit.ly/PPCarIns
What: Chicago news conference with state senators Daniel Biss and Jacqueline Y. Collins
Dory Rand, president, Woodstock Institute
Ken Franklin, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308
William McNary, co-director, Citizen Action/Illinois
Katelyn Johnson, Action Now
Representatives from Reclaim Chicago, Our Revolution, Workers Center for Racial Justice, and Southsiders Organizing for Unity and Liberation
When: 10:30 a.m. Monday, April 17
Where: James R. Thompson Center, 15th floor media briefing room
100 W. Randolph St., Chicago
