A DR story about a woman with a BMI of over 35 – who promised to take legal action when she was refused both life and disability insurance – has clearly had a great effect, as the insurance company PFA Pension has promised. it will no longer base decisions on the score of a BMI alone.
“The debate has made an impression on us, and therefore we have sat down and reconsidered whether it was the right practice,” confirms Ole Krogh Petersen, managing director of PFA Pension.
“We will look individually at the customer’s overall health conditions, so that it is not just BMI that is decisive. If you are otherwise perfectly healthy, and the only thing you have is an elevated BMI, then we think it is fair enough that you can also take out insurance.”
However, Petersen warns that “very, very few” people with a BMI over 35 will not have mitigating health conditions.
Three companies appointed
A Body Mass Index of over 35 places someone in the severely obese category, but critics of the index argue that it does not properly account for different body shapes and densities: for example, a bodybuilder.
Among those criticizing the insurance companies’ policy, which experts have confirmed is legal, are doctors, politicians, the think tank Consumer Council Tænk and the human rights institute Institute for Human Rights.
According to their so-called ‘freedom of contract’, the companies are not obliged to offer all potential customers insurance and are free to make their own assessment of a citizen’s health and risk.
AP Pension and Danica Pension have also been exposed to criticism. AP Pension has informed DR that they may change the way they operate, but Danica Pension refuses to comment.
Other factors will be considered
PFA Pension has previously informed Mona Ebdrup, a 32-year-old mother who “cycles every day, practices yoga, eats healthy and virtually no sick days”, that she was “severely obese, so she cannot be allowed to take out life insurance with us”, in light of her BMI of 37.5.
PFA Pension reasons that it will continue to consider the index, but also other factors in the future.
“BMI and severe overweight are still a very big risk factor, so of course BMI will still be a factor – it’s just not the only thing we want to look at,” concluded Petersen.
About 4 percent of adult Danes have a BMI of over 35, according to the National Center for Overweight.