ECJ rule Gender based insurance discriminatory.

[Aindriu]

European judges rewrote the rule book for insurance companies today by banning risk assessment based on gender.

Using differences between men and women as a risk factor in setting premiums for car and medical insurance and pension schemes breaches EU rules on equality, declared the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

The verdict – which applies from December 21, 2012 – will force changes in the current standard practice across Europe of basing insurance rates on statistics about differing life expectancies or road accident records of the sexes

About time too!

Full article here.

[sinsin]

[jacko]

xlnt decision.

US Supreme Court held the same a number of years ago pursuant to the Civil Rights Act

[Tin Foil Hat]

Result!
I can't believe this was allowed to go on for so long.

[just_society3]

Is charging a younger driver more money ageist then also?

The premium for young male drivers was outrageous, but at the same time they're the worst drivers on the roads. I think insurance companies were getting away with it vast overcharging though.

[Cassandra Syndrome]

Stupid rule. When it comes to insurance, the rates are derived by your personal risk factor. If young men are more likely to be in a car accident than the premium should reflect this. There is no place for the PC brigade here. Why stop with gender? Could a habitual drink driver claim that they are being discriminated against?

Yet another stupid EU ruling from a bunch of dystopian bureaucrats.

[needle_too]

Why do you say about time? Men and women, boys and girls have different actuarial risk profiles and diffeent life expectancies. Actuaries, to use the old joke, get broken down by age and sex:

1. Almost double the number of boys to girls get killed in "violent" accidents: falling out of trees, into pools etc. Males are more risk loving.
2. Young males and now males in their 50s taking up motor bikes are much higher risks than females. Females are safer. Males are, proportionately, a bigger risk.

This is not about sex disrimination. It is about gauging risk and sex is a good predictor.

So what about Health insurance premiums?

Women use far more medical services than men and yet they are not charged higher premiums.

[darkhorse]

If it had been the other way around i.e. men getting cheaper insurance than women - then it would never have been allowed in the first place.
So about time.

[Cassandra Syndrome]

This of course of means everyone's insurance rates will have to go up to subsidise high risk drivers.

[daveL]

But young men are a bigger risk group..

This is a nonsense.