MEP’s plea to Member States: don’t weaken anti-sex bias law

By Peter Chapman

Date: 26/02/04

CHRISTA Prets, the MEP fighting off insurance companies in a battle over sex discrimination, says she fears governments will cave in to pressure to reverse proposals seeking to ban the use of sex as a criterion in calculations for life insurance, private health care and pensions.

But the Austrian Socialist has urged member states' governments to resist the lobbying assault and stand up for equality of the sexes by ensuring companies charge the same tariffs.

Prets said allowing the current pricing systems to continue would enshrine inequality into the financial services sector at a time when governments are cutting back on the state safety-net - forcing citizens to buy private policies to provide for their health, retirement or death.

"I am pessimistic but we should not stop fighting," she told European Voice. "It is very important. If we want to have equality outside employment it is necessary to have equality in insurance."

She said the worst discrimination is the way women are forced to foot a higher bill for health cover simply because childbirth means they, on average, have to visit hospital more often than men.

"The insurance companies argue that pregnancy and maternity is too expensive. But these are not just our [women's] children only. They are an advantage of society. We cannot discriminate against women, we have to share the costs."

She said this is compounded when women get lower pension payments because insurance companies claim they live longer than men do.

"Women have to pay twice - once when they are pregnant and during child care and then their pensions are going down. The only thing the insurance companies say is that women are living longer so we can pay them less than men."

Her warning comes as diplomats in the Council of Ministers prepare to pore over the fine print of the proposals - the brainchild of Anna Diamantopoulou, the employment and social affairs commissioner, who has relinquished her duties to stand in the Greek elections.

Insurance companies have been camped out in European Parliament committee rooms since the dossier moved to the assembly earlier this year.

Companies point to statistics purporting to show that risk profiles of men and women are naturally different.

They say these risks ought to be factored into the price of cover, or the payout received when a policy matures. Failing to take these differences into account will skew the market, they claim.

Ironically, they say women would be big losers in the drive for equality, in some areas.

For example, young female drivers have fewer crashes than men and so pay a quarter less for their car insurance.

Term insurance - that covers the risk of death during a set period, for example during the term of a mortgage - is also cheaper for women, reflecting the smaller likelihood of death.

But Prets said she has "no problem" paying more for these services if women get a fairer deal overall on products such as health cover.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) cites a report by the UKgovernment's Actuary's Department which states that, despite a convergence in life expectancies over the last 20 years, women will continue to outlive men by around four years in 2026.

The ABI's Hugh Savill said ignoring these differences could also distort the market for annuities - the specialized financial products that pay pensioners a set annual sum until they die.

However, Prets warned governments not to be duped by statistics that she claims exaggerate the differences between the sexes.

"You can get results to prove any result that you want," she said, adding that life expectancies of men and women are moving closer to each other and will eventually be insignificant.