A landmark ruling handed down by the Supreme Court on the legal definition of a woman under the Equality Act 2010 has implications for private medical insurance (PMI) underwriters, according to a lawyer.
Earlier today, while the UK Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex, it also pointed out that transgender people still have legal protection from discrimination.
The Scottish government’s argument was that sex-based protections applied to transgender people with a gender recognition certificate, while For Women Scotland appealed against this, maintaining that only people born female were entitled to these protections.
Differing health outcomes
But according to employment lawyer, Jacqueline McDermott, a partner at Keystone Law, the ruling also has implications for insurance customers depending on which type of cover they are applying for.
“For example if they identify as a woman, and they call themselves a woman, and they are applying for health cover, that may have different outcomes because men and women tend to have different health outcomes,” McDermott told Health & Protection.
“So in that case it may be relevant to ask whether they are transgender, and which gender they identify as, so you can identify their actual biological sex where it’s relevant for assessing risk – medical risk or different outcomes for men and women.”
PMI applications
McDermott added that while insurers can ask customers if they are transgender when going through underwriting, for some types of insurance it will not matter.
“If I’m applying for house insurance, it doesn’t matter if I’m male or female or transgender,” McDermott continued.
“If I’m applying for medical insurance, there is a difference whether I am a biological male or a biological female.
“Now if someone completing that form identifies as a woman and puts down that they are a woman, they need to make it clear in those situations that you are asking for their biological sex – or even ask if they identify as transgender in order to establish what their biological sex is, if it’s relevant to the type of insurance they’re seeking.
“It’s not going to be relevant in a lot of cases.
“If you want to have a transgender box, have a transgender box, but which gender are you identifying as?
“It’s not going to be material in most insurance applications which gender they are, but in others maybe it will,” she added.
