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Interestingly the EU has banned insurance underwriting based on gender even with all the actuarial data backing it up. Age is still fair game though.
by theBobBob 10y ago
Interestingly the EU has banned insurance underwriting based on gender even with all the actuarial data backing it up. Age is still fair game though.
- reader5000 10y agoSo (assuming males are more costly to insure) either (a) females pay more than they should and are effectively subsidizing males or (b) males pay less than they should and the insurance companies will go broke..
- beejiu 10y agoOn the other hand, we didn't choose to have high levels of testosterone in our bodies.
- rahimnathwani 10y agoOr (c) insurance companies still make positive returns on both male and female customers, and the regulation just reduces their overall profits without creating losses which must be subsidized by female customers.
- mvindahl 10y ago(d) Insurance companies increase insurance premiums for every customer not in the young male demographic, blames "regulation". Results skyrocket. Management awards themselves seven digit raises to "keep attracting the best talent".
- NotSureYet 10y agoIt's OK because we subsidize their Health Care: men and women pay the same for the same age, but women use way more than men.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Ntrails 10y agoYes, female premiums went up to cover the cost of not having that factor in the model. Fortunately I'm sure people are hard at work finding "proxy factors" which happen to map to pretty well gender but have an acceptable parallel explanation for why they're meaningfully descriptive of an applicants risk profile :)
- angry-hacker 10y agoWhich made the insurance for women, who are traditionally safer drivers because not taking unless risks, go up. Well facts can't be racist but they are at the same time.
- mtgx 10y agoBut if you were a man who was an excellent driver, would you like it that you get to pay more just because you were born into a gender that was "more reckless"? Plus, women want equal rights, so why not be equal in this, too? I think for things like insurance, or healthcare taxes (the model adopted by most countries) it's fair to normalize the price for everyone. Otherwise, the system doesn't really work.
- witty_username 10y agoPrice of insurance is not a right. It is not fair to normalize the price. It penalizes people who are healthy and good drivers (for example not smoking and speeding).
- mcbits 10y agoThe whole purpose of insurance is to normalize the price. Without insurance, people who take the most risks with their health/driving would be more likely to pay (or at least owe) millions, while the health-conscious and risk-averse would generally pay much closer to $0 (until they get old or unlucky). It's interesting that insurance premiums can act as behavioral incentives in some cases, but I doubt it has ever led someone to change their gender or race.
- witty_username 10y agoNo, the purpose of insurance is to hedge the risks (i.e. one would prefer to take 0$ than to take a 50-50 bet on 1000$). For example, the price of bond insurance is not normalized between bonds with different ratings.
- tomp 10y agoIs it just driving insurance or also other kinds (e.g. health insurance, where women might be paying more than men)?
- jtbigwoo 10y agoSince the 80's, the state of Montana has banned insurance underwriting based on gender. There have been attempts to reverse that law, but none have passed. My male Montana cousins always had slightly cheaper insurance than I did, but my female Montana cousins more than made up for it.