Female Problems

It's that time of the month. The time of the month when women go crazy and start shouting, "Discrimination!" And the topic this month is the hot topic everywhere - healthcare.

Today's headlines were all about how insurance companies are "unfairly" charging higher premiums on women. As both a woman and an accountant (which is pretty close to an actuary in some ways), I didn't even need to read the articles. Of course they charge more!

For a quick summary of why this is so obvious, just think about the healthcare needs particular to women. Even if we take pregnancy out of the picture (because not every woman is even in a position to become pregnant, and some become pregnant multiple times), women's healthcare costs are much higher than men's. We have annual mamograms and pap smears. The articles stated that women's risks for female related cancers such as ovarian cancer and breast cancer are much higher and at much younger ages than other types of cancer. Women take more drugs than men (in addition to most regular drugs, women take birth control pills, anti-depression, and anti-anxiety medications). Finally, there is the personality difference between men and women in that women are more likely to visit a doctor when they become sick, as opposed to men who try to "tough it up."

Insurance companies, when calculating the cost of premiums for their customers (your employer) look at the mix of employees. The larger the group of employees, the better the rates, because risks are spread out. (For insance, I, as a healthy twenty-something, help to mitigate the cost of insurance for a coworker who might be overweight and in her late 50's). Small companies can be hit especially hard by high risk individuals on their payrolls. These individuals include smokers, overweight individuals, and women. Therefore, the outcry is that companies that employ a disproportionate amount of women are being penalized in their insurance premiums. And sometimes they pass that cost on to the employees, who are women.

First of all, let me point out that smoking and obseity are both lifestyle choices. Companies and insurance providers both try to battle the costly effects of insuring smokers and overweight individuals without being prejudiced or unjust. However, being a woman is not a lifestyle choice, and therefore I can see how, on the surface, some people might see the extra costs as unfair.

But the fact is, they're not. They are the result of years and years of research and statistics. People at the insurance companies are paid (fairly well I believe) to aggregate data on how much healthcare costs, who it goes to, and how much they need to charge companies to make the business worthwhile. If the insurance companies were to stop considering the effect of gender on costs, then premiums would rise for men. Some companies would see no difference, but other companies, would feel the brunt of the change. Suddenly men would be penalized - but this time for no reason, as opposed to women who are actually using the services. Further, a more likely scenario is that, if women's and men's premiums are the same for fairness sake, insurance companies would simply increase rates all around the board. This would be great for their profits, but would hurt everyone equally.

Here's another fact to consider - I have always wondered which is more expensive, being a man or a woman. For instance, men have to shave. They have to have haircuts much more often than women. Historically they have been expected to pay for dates.

Women choose to buy lots of clothes and makeup, but that's not a necessary expense. But what about necessary expenses? We will always have male and female only expenses in our lives to deal with. Do women rise up in protest because they have to pay for their monthly feminine products? Using the same logic as the unhappy women in the news today, it would be unfair for them to have to pay for these products every month, just because they use them. It doesn't matter that they are necessary. They should be free. In fact, we should make men pay for them.

Or what about shampoo? Due to the (typically) longer hair worn by women, we consume more hair products than men. We should get bottles that are 33% bigger than the bottles men buy. That way they will last the same length of time and cost the same.

What about other female only products, whether necessary or unecessary? It's the same concept of healthcare. The more you use, the more you pay for it. Take gender out of it. If I want 100 apples, I have to pay for 100 apples. If I want one apple, I pay for one apple. If I buy 100 apples, I can't complain because the guy in the line behind me bought one apple and paid less.

Women, it's time to grow up. We are women. We are proud of it. And we all know, even if it's buried way deep down inside of us, that we would much rather deal with the additional cost of being female than be a man any day.

Now, excuse me, please, I have a doctor's appointment to go to...