Fat 'epidemic' bumps up cost of insurance

Fat Britons may have to fork out millions more in life insurance premiums in the coming years as obesity threatens to rival smoking as the leading cause of premature death.

Reinsurance giant Swiss Re believes policyholders are increasingly eating their way to higher costs, given the threefold increase in obesity in the UK in the last 20 years.

As the fat epidemic begins to offset improvements in life expectancy achieved through medical science, a report has warned that insurance policy rates will go up.

The firm is urging companies to take policyholders' weight into account to avoid being hit by what the chief medical officer has recently described as a "health time bomb". Britain's biggest life insurer, Norwich Union, is already thinking of demanding that customers send in a waist measurement with their applications.

The warning comes in a report only days after scientists linked weight problems with an increased risk of cancer. Swiss Re expects the weight "loading" in life premiums to rise 25-50 per cent as more people become obese.

More than 13 million people in the UK are now classed as obese. A third of adults, a third of girls and a fifth of boys are predicted to be in the category by 2020. It is thought it could cost society £3.6billion by 2010. "The life insurance industry must tackle issues associated with increases in obesity by ensuring that the related risks are accurately assessed and rated, and the consumers are charged an appropriate premium to reflect the risk they present," the report says.

Insurers already use a body mass index, which divides a person's weight by their height, to signal when potential policyholders enter the danger zone.

At the moment a 40-year old, 5ft10in male non-smoker, weighing 20-stone is judged as being six years older simply because of his weight. He faces a surcharge of £144 a year on a standard 25-year £100,000 life assurance plan.