George Joseph, chairman of insurer Mercury, is advocating for a new car insurance ballot initiative in California.

Basically, Joseph’s push is to allow insurers to charge more for policies for people who haven’t had prior insurance for a certain period of time, exempting soldiers and those who have been out of work for 18 months.

Sound familiar? That’s because this practice is legal in most other states, but not California. Joseph seeks to change that.

According to him, by charging more for people who have had a significant lapse in insurance, insurers can offer discounts to those who have had continuous coverage.

But for those people that haven’t needed to own a car in states that allow this practice, the fact that they have to pay more may seem unfair.

According to the Los Angeles Times op-ed, Mercury insurance quotes for Texans and Floridians who did not own a car previously are 51 percent to 55 percent higher than for those who did.

However, the writer didn’t specify if the above percentages are including teen drivers, who did not own cars previously, but whose driving records warrant higher premiums.

What sets California auto insurance apart from many other states is the absence of both ZIP-Code pricing and penalizing based on insurance coverage history, which is due to Proposition 103, passed in 1988.

Joseph has been trying to undo the law ever since it was passed.