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Women paying more for CareShield Life
Equal coverage but unequal premiums: Is it fair to charge women more for CareShield Life?
The reasons for higher CareShield Life premiums for women involve economics and logic, but some say a gender-based approach is unfair. Insight looks at the issue and how such perceptions could be addressed.
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A local study has found that the average 60-year-old man has 22 more years ahead of him, with three of those years disabled in some way. In contrast, a woman of the same age will live 26 more years, eight of them with disability.
PHOTOS: ST FILE
Yuen Sin
No one objected 16 years ago when the opt-out disability scheme, ElderShield, was launched with higher premiums for women, due to their higher risk of disability.
But during a Parliament session earlier this month, a debate emerged over the extra sum of about $50 in annual premiums that women will pay compared to men under the proposed CareShield Life scheme - which builds on ElderShield and will become compulsory - when they join at age 30.
