There has been a lot of talk lately about how women are targeted for predatory lending and receive more subprime mortgage products than men, regardless of income and credit scores. But there is one thing women can hang their hats on; they should pay less for life insurance because they live longer.
Sorry, guys but it’s the truth. Maybe beer and hotdogs isn’t the healthiest meal to eat five nights a week after all.
The article, “Why Men are Paying More for Life Insurance,” posted on insure.com, explains how men are more prone to disease and fatal health risks that are causing their overall premiums to be higher than their female counterparts.
Life insurance policies will be more expensive for one person over another due to the likelihood of risk for the lender. And this risk weighs the likelihood that a person will incur a fatal injury, disease or just early death. The better the chance of an early death will cause a life insurance policy’s premium to be more expensive.
If you’re a male and are ready to visit your life insurance agent to take out the best and least expensive policy available, be prepared to pay more than your spouse or most other females for that matter. It’s not discrimination but rather history’s and biology’s fault.
“‘Why Men Die Younger,’ a study published in February 2001 by the Society of Actuaries, concludes that the hormone testosterone ‘plays havoc biologically and behaviorally with men's bodies,’ leading to diseases and risk-taking behavior that are more common among men than women. Estrogen, the female hormone, tends to increase longevity for women. The greatest difference between male and female mortality rates occurs at age 22, when testosterone levels for males are traditionally highest.”
This is not saying that males die more at the age of 22 than other ages but the percentage difference of all deaths between males and females at this age is greatest primarily due to male testosterone.
“Testosterone promotes higher blood pressure, the study says, and suppresses the effectiveness of the immune system. It also causes males to engage in risky behavior such as unsafe driving, illegal drug use, and alcohol abuse, all of which are more prevalent among men than women.”
It is interesting that while males are commonly viewed in culture as being stronger and more dominant than women, history and science tells us that appearances can be deceiving.
“‘Many have concluded that the male is the weaker or frailer of the sexes,’ says Barbara Blatt Kalben, the study's author. Over a three-year period, Kalben examined demographic data from as early as the 14th century and concluded that mortality differences are global.”
“The study found that men die younger from 66 of 72 causes of death considered, including cancer, diabetes mellitus, heart disease, infections, strokes, and pulmonary disease. Only six causes of death had higher female mortality rates: Alzheimer's disease, asthma, breast cancer, kidney infections, pregnancy/childbirth, and rheumatic fever.”
But this does not suggest that males are doomed. Many of the deaths in males are still due to unwarranted risks such as fast driving and cigarette smoking.
However, studies do show that if you are a male and employ the same health habits of that of a female, you will die sooner. Unfortunately for male life insurance borrowers, life agents know of this scientific inevitability and charge higher premiums to males. There is nothing a guy can do about that.
But don’t feel bad men, your not the only species mortality discriminates against.
Females in nearly every species, including crustaceans, fish, insects, humans, mollusks, primates, and other mammals, are more likely to live longer than males. But if birds wanted life insurance, they'd be in luck: Because of their chromosomes, male birds live just as long as females.
More News Articles
|
