Keisha Sean Waites, who will take over as Georgia’s Insurance and Fire Safety Commissioner after defeating incumbent Republican John King, has laid out a 100-day agenda that includes a proposal to stop insurers from using credit scores and ZIP codes to set premiums for auto and homeowners policies.
“Those things have nothing to do with calculating your risk as it relates to your insurance premiums,” Waites said in a post-election interview.
Waites is a former Georgia state representative and former Atlanta city councilwoman. Her win came the same night Georgia reelected Sen. John Ossoff and elected former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as governor.
The three-part plan
Waites outlined three priorities for her first 100 days in office. First is the ban on using credit scores and ZIP codes as factors in setting insurance premiums. Second, she wants to make it easier for consumers to recover money or take action against insurers in cases involving alleged wrongdoing or negligence. Third, she wants to streamline Georgia’s insurance regulatory process, with the stated goal of attracting more insurance companies to the state and increasing competition.
What critics say it would mean for rates
The credit-score and ZIP code proposal has drawn pushback from critics who argue it would shift costs among policyholders rather than lower overall insurance prices. According to figures circulated by critics of the plan, a Georgia driver with excellent credit currently pays about $1,300 a year for full coverage, while a driver with poor credit pays about $3,139 — a gap of $1,839, which critics say is larger than the typical rate difference between most ZIP codes in the state.
Critics argue that insurers rely on credit scores and location because those factors are strong predictors of claims, and that removing them would not change the total amount insurers need to collect to cover claims statewide — it would simply redistribute who pays what. Those raising concerns pointed to Washington state’s temporary ban on credit-based scoring, saying more than 60% of drivers there saw premiums rise as discounts were spread across the broader pool of policyholders.
A divided legislature awaits
Any changes to insurance regulations would require cooperation from the Georgia General Assembly. While Democrats flipped control of the state House in Tuesday’s elections, Republicans narrowly held on to the state Senate. That split chamber means Waites and other Democrats pushing changes to insurance regulation may need Republican votes in the Senate to advance the plan, which could limit how far the proposal ultimately goes.
