A CRITIQUE OF: "INSURANCE-BASED CREDIT SCORES: IMPACT ON MINORITY AND LOW-INCOME POPULATIONS IN MISSOURI”
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Critique
by
EPIC Consulting, LLC
The Study was titled in a way that will almost certainly mislead readers as to the results of the data analysis. There was no study of the impact of insurance scores on insurance rates, or on the availability of insurance coverage, even though the title declares otherwise.
Despite implications that credit-based insurance scores will negatively impact coverage availability and affordability in certain areas of Missouri, there is not one bit of data in the Study to support such a conclusion.
The Study, inappropriately and without analysis, implies that all minority populations will be affected to the same degree by credit-based insurance scores.
The Study relies on the differences in percentiles in a way that almost certainly overstates the actual differences in scores. Reliance on percentiles utomatically implies differences in average scores that may not actually exist.
The Study ignores the fact that the variation of scores between individuals will dwarf any differences among average scores by race, income, or zip code. We expect that an analysis which accounted for the variation of scores among individuals would show virtually no relationship between insurance scores and race or income.
The Study inappropriately assumes that nearly all differences in average scores between the zip codes are a function of geography, race and income. The error of this assumption would have been evident if other important variables would have been included in the analysis. Important variables readily available to Dr. Kabler were not included in his regression analysis. If the missing variables had been included it is likely that the differences ascribed to race and income would have disappeared. Also, insufficient information was included in the Study to determine if the variables used were structured properly.
For the full EPIC Critique of the study, click on the file name below:
 Download/View File: EPIC Critique (PDF File) (70 K) | |
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