Should the cost of women engaging with health services at a younger age than men mean they are not offered protection cover?
This question was posed by Alan Knowles, co-managing director of Cura Financial Services (pictured) at the Women in Protection Conference.
Knowles told delegates about a young client of his whose smear tests were reguarly indicating Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 1 and human papillomavirus (HPV).
CIN is a term that describes abnormal changes of the cells that line the cervix and is typically caused by infections with HPV.
He explained women are generally invited to attend cervical smear tests from the age of 25 – meaning they typically engage with health services at a much younger age than men who are more likely to wait until their 40s with various man checks.
According to Knowles, his client really struggled to get life insurance and a mortgage for years because she would keep having these positive tests but always at a very low level.
When the client came to Cura, Knowles explained the company spoke to two female underwriters who assured him they were not worried about the tests, but when the application for cover was made, it was turned down.
The decision to turn the lady’s application down was made by a male underwriter.
Cura challenged the decision and in the end managed to secure standard rates for the client.
However, Knowles added he did wonder if any gender bias was involved in making the decision, but was assured by the insurer this was not the case.
Though Knowles reflected there could be a wider problem at play.
“I’m a male adviser, advising my female client. Now I work with in a 70% female office and all sorts of things are talked about.
“And I think would your male adviser think like that? Would your male underwriter think ‘Actually it’s CIN 1 therefore it’s not that bad, we should be offering this young lady cover?’
“In the grand scheme of things is it fair that women are penalised for engaging health services at a younger age. We’re always talking about how do we get more females to buy protection?
“That is quite a topical thing this morning but then if we’re pushing them away by saying we can’t offer cover because you’ve engaged with [your] health and doing the right thing, it doesn’t quite sit right with me.”