Section 230-RICR-20-60-5.6 - Coverage Standards for Civil UnionsA. 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 and2. notify the Department of its determination.230 R.I. Code R. 230-RICR-20-60-5.6