COLORADO, USA — Many people are in agreement that a bill designed to expand access to insurance information for non-English-speaking Coloradans is not doing what it's supposed to do.
House Bill 23-1004, which went into effect Jan. 1, requires insurance companies to provide all their policy documents to customers in the same languages they advertise in. If an agent advertises in Spanish, for example, their policies should be available in that language.
It was a push for language access. But some insurance companies are abiding by the law by cutting out other languages.
Allstate sent out a directive stating agents are now only authorized to advertise, quote or sell policies in English.
"We wanted more language access and they’re pulling back, which I feel like they’re not listening to their customers," state Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, a sponsor of the bill, said.
Martin Amador, an Allstate agency owner, said he was stunned to learn about the bill, and the memo that followed.
"I have a staff of six Spanish speakers. So I have a pretty big staff, and so I’ve hired specifically to serve these people in our community," Amador said. "I would say -- on the phone and even people walking into our agency -- I would say probably about 40-50% of our business, our interactions, are in another language. So it’s really affected my business and how we can operate on a daily basis."
Carole Walker, Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Association, said she has been fielding calls similar to Amador's concerns for the last month. She said implementing a bill like this requires time, and hopes bill supporters meet again to consider delaying the implementation of the law.
"Insurance companies are estimating two to four years to be able to comply with all this documentation," Walker said. "We have insurance agents that have built their whole businesses around servicing non-English speakers. There's a lot of uncertainty in this foreign language bill that will lead to litigation."
Velasco doesn't think insurance companies need four years to comply with the law, but she is open to having a discussion to make the necessary changes.
"Even if it’s thousands of pages, we definitely don’t take four years to do a translation," Velasco, a former translator, said. "We want them to increase language access. You know, that’s the goal. If we can get there through making clarifications, adding definitions, we can do that."
Amador hopes those changes come sooner rather than later so he can continue to serve the community that means so much to him.
"I really joined just to help the community, help Latino people like myself in the community and just educate and really help them," he said. "It's really more of an identity thing more than anything for me, of who I am and what I represent, but right now we’re just trying to maneuver around the best we can and try to help people and do the best we can."
Velasco and the Rocky Mountain Insurance Association both said they hope to meet again to clarify some of the details and try to figure out the best way to implement these changes.
In a statement to 9NEWS, the communications team for Allstate said, "We want to advertise and provide sales support to everyone in the language of their choice, but recent legislation prevents us from doing that. We’re working with our industry partners to find a solution that allows insurers to provide appropriate assistance to everyone shopping for coverage."
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Full Episodes of Next with Kyle Clark