A New York Democrat says Texas health and policy choices are quietly driving up life insurance costs for New Yorkers through national mortality tables. His proposed “TEXAS Act” would force insurers operating in New York to use state-specific data, but two insu
On paper, life insurance pricing looks like math: risks, odds, and how long a person is expected to live. But for New York State Sen. James Skoufis, it also looks like a trade—one he says New Yorkers are losing.
In a recent op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle. Skoufis wrote that “a hidden subsidy—invisible but very real—flows from blue state policyholders to red states every month.” His argument is pointed: insurers rely on national mortality data that pools New Yorkers with populations elsewhere. including Texas. whose residents he says have lower life expectancy on average. Skoufis says the effect could ripple into billions of dollars in annual premiums paid by people in his state.
“Your state isn’t as healthy as ours. Why make us pay for that?” he asked in the op-ed.
Skoufis’ proposal is called the TEXAS Act—short for the Terminate Excessive Cross-state Actuarial Subsidization Act. The bill would require insurers operating in New York to use state-specific mortality data when setting rates instead of relying on national averages that combine residents from different states.
The dispute starts with an undeniable fact: life expectancy varies across the United States. The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows Americans can expect to live to roughly age 79 on average—76.5 years for men and 81.4 years for women. The CDC’s geographic gap is larger than many people expect. with nearly an eight-year difference between the highest- and lowest-ranking states in its 2022 life tables.
Hawaii ranked first at 80 years, followed by Connecticut at 79.8 years and New York at 79.6 years. At the bottom of the rankings was West Virginia at 72.2 years, followed by Mississippi and Kentucky. Texas fell closer to the middle of the pack at 77.1 years.
Skoufis ties that gap to policy choices. He argues New York’s longer life expectancy reflects investments in public health. workplace protections and social services. while certain Southern states have contributed to poorer health outcomes. In his op-ed. Skoufis pointed to Medicaid expansion decisions and what he described as the lack of structural support systems in Texas. writing that 16.8 percent of adults in Texas have no health insurance compared to 4.9 percent of New York’s population.
Yet even with its relatively long-lived population, New York remains one of the most-expensive states for life insurance.
A financial comparison platform. SuperMoney. reported that the states with the highest average permanent life insurance rates are New York at $1. 500 per year. California at $1. 480 per year. Florida at $1. 470 per year. Texas at $1. 450 per year. and Illinois at $1. 430 per year. The states with the lowest average permanent life insurance rates. according to the same compilation. are North Dakota at $450 per year. Iowa at $460 per year. Idaho at $470 per year. South Dakota at $475 per year. and Wyoming at $480 per year.
The same group of states also appeared near the top of lists for average term life insurance rates—coverage for a specific period such as 10, 20 or 30 years. New York was again listed as No. 1, with an average annual premium of $600 per year.
Skoufis’ central question is simple: if insurers can price risk more precisely, shouldn’t premiums in New York reflect New York’s higher life expectancy rather than averages that dilute it with states like Texas?
Insurance experts say the story is more complicated.
Rob Hoyt. Moore Chair and Professor of Risk Management and Insurance in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. told Newsweek that Skoufis is pointing to a real issue—national pricing models can mask regional differences. But Hoyt argued that geography is far from the biggest factor in determining premiums.
“If the only thing that mattered in determining the premium a life insurance buyer pays was an aggregate mortality table,” Hoyt said, Skoufis would have a point.
But Hoyt said life insurance pricing and underwriting decisions typically consider a wide range of factors, including age, health status, family health history, lifestyle, tobacco use, gender, driving record, and occupation.
Those factors, he said, already capture much of the variation in life expectancy seen across states.
Mary Pat Campbell. a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American of Actuaries and a New York resident. also questioned whether state-level mortality data would meaningfully alter pricing. “People who purchase individual life insurance generally have lower mortality rates than the population as a whole,” Campbell said. She added that high-risk activities. tobacco use. and medical history typically matter far more to insurers than a policyholder’s state of residence.
Hoyt said he doubted Skoufis’ proposal would significantly reduce premiums for New Yorkers. He argued that insurers already account for many of the factors driving mortality differences. so state-specific pricing may have little practical impact on rates. Hoyt also warned that requiring insurers to maintain separate state-based pricing systems could increase compliance and administrative costs—costs that could potentially push premiums higher overall.
The bill itself, meanwhile, is still in its early stage. The TEXAS Act was referred to committee in May and has not advanced. Whether it gains traction may hinge on lawmakers accepting Skoufis’ argument that state-level health outcomes should play a larger role in how life insurance risk is priced.
For Skoufis, the stakes are measured in dollars and fairness: New Yorkers, he says, are paying for a national shortcut. For the experts who push back. the concern is different—whether changing the data source would actually change the bottom line. or just add friction to a system already built to price risk at the individual level.
New York Senate James Skoufis TEXAS Act life insurance premiums mortality data CDC life expectancy Medicaid expansion Texas actuarial pricing term life insurance