As binge drinking, smoking and sexually transmitted infections become more common among women, Johanna Gornitzki looks at the long-term implications for the industry
In the 1920s, the women of Britain were finally given the right to vote. Forty years later, the feminists of the 60s were burning their bras as a symbol of liberation from male control. Today, the way in which a woman leads her life is no longer that different from a man: she has a career, goes to the pub after work and has several different sexual partners throughout her lifetime.
While no one would argue that the situation was better before, it can be said that the move towards complete gender equality has also had a negative impact, particularly when it comes to socialising.
Alarming figures from the Government and a number of health organisations show that women today live their lives as if there is no tomorrow. This is causing great concern among Government bodies and support groups such as Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and Alcoholics Anonymous - a concern that will inevitably spread to the insurance industry.
Heavy dependency
The Department of Health's (DoH) annual General Household Survey, carried out in December 2004, showed that young women are drinking, taking drugs and smoking more than ever. It also showed that the proportion of girls aged 11-15 who had taken drugs in the last year has increased from 10% in 1998 to 20% in 2003.
The findings also suggest that more teenage girls binge drink. The mean number of units consumed by girls aged 11-15 over a seven day period has increased from 4.7 in 1990 to 8.5 in 2003. In the meantime, the number of 16-24 year-old women who drank more than the recommended weekly 14 units rose from 17% to 33% between 1992 and 2002.
While not many people go on to develop a heavy dependency on alcohol, drinking just above the recommended levels increases the risk of getting a wide range of illnesses including cancer, heart disease, stroke, digestive problems and mental health disorders, many of which would directly impact on insurance premiums.
Apart from taking more drugs and drinking more alcohol than previous generations of women, the DoH survey also reveals that smoking has become much more popular among teenage girls, with 26% of 15-year old girls admitting to smoking regularly compared with only 18% of 15-year old boys. Amanda Ford, research manager at ASH, believes this is because of the strong link between smoking and fashion. "It has a lot to do with images and role models such as Kate Moss, who is often seen holding a cigarette," she says.
In Britain, tobacco has caused six million deaths over the last 50 years. In fact, almost half of regular smokers will eventually be killed by their habit, which causes at least 80% of all deaths from lung cancer and about 30% of all cancer deaths. These figures are likely to increase according to the World Health Organisation, which predicts that around one in two people will suffer from cancer at one stage in their lives by 2020.
Nick Kirwan, marketing director for protection at Scottish Widows, believes the increased risk can be attributed to present lifestyles. "You can reduce your risk if you want to, but as a nation we are not doing that," he says.
Changes in women's lifestyles have also had an effect on the number of women being diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection (STI). According to the Health Protection Agency's (HPA) annual report published in November 2004, cases continued to increase during 2003 with chlamydia being the most commonly diagnosed disease in genito-urinary medicine clinics across the country. Alexandra Baker, spokeswoman for the HPA, confirms that the figure for young women "keeps on going up".
The rising number of obese people in the UK is another health issue that has caused much concern in recent years. Currently, 25% of British women are considered obese.
Judging by these statistics, women's lifestyles are clearly changing. But while the change itself may be obvious, it is much harder to pinpoint exactly what future implications this will have on women's overall health and life expectancy, and effectively, their insurance premiums.
Until now, men and women have always been quoted different rates when applying for insurance products such as critical illness (CI), income protection (IP) and term assurance. Women pay more for CI or IP, but less for term assurance or car insurance because of the different risk ratings and because they live longer.
Different rates for men and women almost became a thing of the past when the EU Gender Directive, which will come into effect this summer, initially proposed to ban underwriting of insurance products on grounds of gender. However, after receiving fierce criticism, an opt-out clause, allowing insurance companies to continue to use gender when setting premiums, was agreed by all member states.
Despite this decision, Richard Verdin, sales and marketing director at Direct Life and Pension Services, believes it may just be a matter of time before rates become level as women's lifestyles continue to change.
Greater concern
That said, he does not believe the insurance industry should worry about the fact that people's lifestyles are changing as it will not have any major effects on the way women are sold protection products. "The issue for the industry is that they have to keep an eye on it," he says.
Kirwan agrees. "It is not so much the trends that concern insurers because you can price for that. What would be a greater concern is a shock event because it would be very difficult to price for," he says.
One shock event was the pandemic of HIV/Aids in the late 1980s, which saw insurers put the price for life assurance up by 300% for single and gay men. However, looking to the future, Kirwan believes medical advances rather than lifestyles are much more likely to cause such a stir.
"Such a move could, for example, be the reduction in age when a woman is first screened for breast cancer. Today that age is 50, but if it was to be reduced to 40 or even 30, it could affect critical illness payouts as the average age when a woman buys critical illness cover is currently 36," he explains.
In terms of underwriting, changes in lifestyle may beg for a change in the way clients are questioned. One question that Kirwan believes may have to be altered in the future concerns smoking. Currently, clients are only asked whether they smoke or not. "There is a big gap between a smoker and a non-smoker. A category for former smokers may therefore be introduced as a middle ground," he says.
All in all, insurers do not think there will be any dramatic changes to the underwriting process because it already takes account of many lifestyle factors and because many of the questions are already asked on an individual basis, argues Robert Morrison, underwriting manager at Bright Grey.
Morrison also points out that the most important factor when offering a policy - the genetic one - still remains. Women and men are physically very different, and there will always be some illnesses that affect women more than men and vice versa. But, while lifestyles have a direct impact on health risks, someone's genes will always play a major part in the likelihood that an individual will contract a disease.
Moreover, one can question whether recent statistics only tell one side of the story. As Morrison suggests, while today's women may be drinking and taking more drugs compared with 10 or 20 years ago, they are also more health conscious than before. With this in mind, there may not be any changes to future female mortality, and even if this figure was to change, it will take years to show.
Indeed, the long-term effects of women living it up are next to impossible to predict. Morrison says only time will tell, and many others are likely to agree. So while women should take steps today if they want to remain healthy tomorrow, insurers and advisers need not worry unduly for the time being.
COVER notes
• The proportion of girls aged 11-15 who have taken drugs in the last year has increased from 10% in 1998 to 20% in 2003.
• The number of 16-24 year-old women who drink more than the recommended weekly 14 units rose from 17% to 33% between 1992 and 2002.
• In terms of underwriting, changes in lifestyle may beg for a change in the way clients are questioned, particularly regarding smoking.
