Cheaper cover for women could end

Cheaper insurance for women in the
EU could soon be over following news that EU Advocate General
Juliane Kokott believes that taking the sex of a person into
consideration for insurance purposes is against a person’s
fundamental rights.

Her ruling follows an action
brought by Belgian consumer association Test-Achats and two private
individuals before the Belgian Constitutional Court (BCC). In their
action they requested that the annulment of a provision transposing
into law of an EU directive that permits sex-specific differences
in insurance premiums and benefits. This is only allowed where sex
is a determining factor that can be substantiated by relevant and
accurate actuarial and statistical data. The BCC in turn asked the
European Court of Justice (ECJ) to rule on the compatibility of the
derogation with the principle of equal treatment for men and women
under European law.

Kokott’s opinion is not binding and
has been passed on to ECJ judges who have begun their deliberations
and will issue a final judgment in 2011.

However, British Conservative
Member of the European Parliament Ashley Fox stressed in a
statement that Kokott’s opinions are seldom ignored by the ECJ.
Describing the opinion as “madness” he said it “abjectly fails” to
take critical factors that enable insurers to offer women lower
rates than men into account.

Kokott’s opinion has also raised
the ire of the European federation of insurers and reinsurers, the
Comité Européen des Assurances (CEA) which warned that there could
be “far-reaching implications” for the price and availability of
insurance cover if her opinion is upheld by the ECJ.

“The core principle of risk
assessment is that people in comparable situations are treated
equally and those in different situations are treated differently,”
said CEA director general Michaela Koller. She added that if
this risk-based, factual principle is not maintained, premiums will
increase, coverage will decrease and some products will be
withdrawn from the market entirely.

Koller continued that insurers
support efforts to prevent discrimination, but if all insurance
consumers are treated in the same way, some will inevitably be
disadvantaged.

“Insurers differentiate. They do not discriminate,” she
stressed.

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