In what can be called the most-recent compromise from health insurers to convince lawmakers against the inclusion of a new public health-insurance plan in a soon-to-come $2.5 trillion health-care revamp, insurance companies Tuesday proposed to do away with the practice of charging higher premiums to women vis-a-vis men for the same coverage.

Generally speaking, women are charged 25 to 50 percent more than men for insurance that provides similar coverage. The reason for the "disparity", as per the insurance executives lies in the fact that women aged 19 to 55 years are likely to cost more than men of the same age, particularly in the childbearing years.

In testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, Karen M. Ignagni, president of a trade group called America's Health Insurance Plans, made the offer to end the premium "disparity", on behalf of the insurance companies.

Saying that she agreed the disparities "should be eliminated," Ignagni added that though the health-insurance industry was willing to accept aggressive federal regulation, it was opposed to the proposed creation of a government-sponsored insurance program by the Congress.

The health insurers' decision to end the "disparity" come after Senator John Kerry's introduction of a bill on Tuesday, whereby insurers would be prohibited from considering sex as a factor in setting premiums. Kerry said the policy was "just plain wrong, and it has to change."