Georgia House Bill HB182

Georgia 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/29/25
• Report Pass: 2/6/25
• Engrossed: 2/24/25
• Refer: 2/26/25
• Report Pass: 3/13/25

Caption

Life insurance; excluding or restricting liability for certain deaths occurring while an individual is an active duty service member; prohibit

Summary

HB 182 amends Georgia’s life insurance code to prohibit group life insurance policies from excluding or limiting coverage for deaths that occur while the insured is a service member of the regular or reserve components of the U.S. armed forces, so long as the death is not directly or indirectly caused by war or a war-related hazard. The bill leaves in place existing law that allows certain exclusions in life insurance policies generally, but creates a specific protection for service members under group life insurance policies. The measure is narrowly focused on a single coverage issue in group life insurance. It does not broadly change all life insurance rules; instead, it adds a new statutory restriction on what group policies may exclude, while preserving the Commissioner’s authority to approve policy provisions that are more favorable to policyholders. The bill also includes an effective date tied to gubernatorial approval and repeals conflicting laws.

Impact

The bill revises Code Section 33-25-5 in Title 33, Chapter 25, Georgia’s insurance code, by adding a new prohibition against service-member exclusions in group life insurance. As a result, insurers issuing group life policies in Georgia would be barred from denying or restricting death benefits solely because the insured was serving in the military, except where the death falls within the existing war-related exception. The change affects insurers, employers or other entities offering group life coverage, and service members covered under those policies.

Sentiment

The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial in the legislative process. It passed the House 171-0, the Senate 46-0 on the substitute, and the House again 166-2 when agreeing to the Senate substitute, indicating strong bipartisan approval. The vote pattern suggests general agreement that the bill provides a targeted consumer protection for military personnel and their families.

Contention

There is little evidence of substantive opposition in the available record. The only notable procedural point is that the Senate offered a substitute, which the House later accepted, but the context provided does not show any recorded committee debate or specific objections. Any potential contention would likely center on the scope of the new restriction for insurers and whether the military-service protection should be limited to group life policies rather than extended more broadly, but no such dispute is documented in the materials provided.