You always want to personalize your testimony.

Sometimes you also need to diversify it.

This summer, a constituent told me his life insurance company would not provide coverage for travel to Gaza or the West Bank when in Israel.

After researching the issue, I introduced House Bill 352, which is modeled on laws in several other states.

It would prohibit a life insurer from denying coverage “for reasons associated with an applicant’s or insured’s future lawful travel plans.”  It’s already illegal to do so because of someone’s “past lawful travel plans.”

Excluded from this protection would be travel to areas where the Centers for Disease Control has issued a highest level alert or warning or where “there is an ongoing armed conflict involving the military or a sovereign nation foreign to the country or conflict.”

I will ask my constituent to testify.  That will personalize the issue.

I will also seek testimony from people of different faiths or whose jobs take them to countries where my bill would benefit them.  That will diversify the issue.