Rhode Island Code of Regulations › Title 230 - Department of Business Regulation › Chapter 20 - Insurance › Subchapter 60 - Miscellaneous › Part 5 - Civil Unions (formerly Insurance Regulation 118) (230-RICR-20-60-5) › Section 230-RICR-20-60-5.6 - Coverage Standards for Civil Unions

Current through June 14, 2024
A. Insurance
				  contracts and policies offered by insurers to married couples, spouses, and
				  their families shall also be offered to parties to a civil union, and their
				  families. Except as specifically provided herein, all insurance contracts and
				  policies shall provide coverage to parties to a civil union and their families
				  that is equivalent to coverage provided to married persons and their families.
				  At the request of a civil union party, insurers shall endorse or amend any such
				  policy or contract to include policy or contract language which is consistent
				  with this Part.
B. Effective
				  January 1, 2012, any party to a civil union wishing to change his or her
				  insurance contract or policy into a joint contract or policy shall be entitled
				  to make that change to the extent a married person would be allowed to change
				  his or her policy, without incurring any penalty as the result of such change.
				  Any such change may be subject to standard and routine underwriting of the
				  party to be added to the policy or contract.
C. Insurers shall not use the fact that an
				  applicant or insured is a party to a civil union as a means to include sexual
				  orientation in the underwriting process or in the determination of
				  insurability. Use of sexual orientation as an underwriting standard or practice
				  or as an eligibility requirement constitutes an unfair trade practice that is
				  prohibited by R.I. Gen. Laws §
										27-29-4.
D. Nothing in this Part shall be construed to
				  prohibit insurers from setting rates for insurance in accordance with
				  reasonable classifications based on relevant actuarial data or actual cost
				  experience unrelated to civil union status. Preferential rates or discounts
				  offered to a married person shall also be made equally available to the parties
				  to a civil union.
E. The existence
				  of a civil union shall automatically create, for each party to a civil union,
				  an insurable interest in the other party as that term is used in R.I. Gen. Laws
				  §
										27-4-27. Both parties in a civil
				  union shall also automatically have an insurable interest in a child for whom
				  one party in a civil union becomes the natural or adoptive parent during the
				  term of a civil union.
F. An
				  insurer shall not require any party to a civil union to produce proof of the
				  existence of a valid civil union if that insurer does not also require married
				  persons to produce proof of the existence of a valid marriage. Insurers may
				  require an applicant to produce proof of the existence of a valid civil union
				  only where the insurer would also require proof of the existence of a valid
				  marriage under the same circumstances.
G. Insurers are not required to provide a
				  benefit available to a married person to a party to a civil union, or amend an
				  insurance policy or contract of a party to a civil union when application of
				  federal law prohibits such action or limits the benefit to married person. If
				  an insurer declines to provide a benefit or to amend an insurance contract
				  because it determines that the application of federal law affects the provision
				  of a benefit available to a married person to a party to a civil union, the
				  insurer shall:
1. notify the party to a civil
				  union of the declination and the specific reason why the insurer takes the
				  position that federal law prohibits extension of the benefit and
2. notify the Department of its
				  determination.