A few weeks ago, I received a message from a young woman with a disability \u2013 a self-employed professional registered for VAT, someone who works, is building her independence, and operates in the market just as thousands of professionals do every day \u2013 with one key difference: when she tried to find an accident insurance policy to protect her health and ensure the continuity of her work, she began to come up against a series of obstacles.<\/p>\n\n
He wasn\u2019t asking for special treatment, nor was he looking for a shortcut; he simply wanted access to a standard tool \u2013 the sort that is almost taken for granted in the world of work. Instead, for weeks, the response was always the same: closed doors, vague answers, delays, and difficulties in finding anyone willing even to take the request seriously. <\/p>\n\n
The solution eventually arrived, but only after two months, and that in itself should be enough to give us pause for thought, because when a service designed to protect people only works after such a long and arduous process, the problem is not just an individual one; it is a systemic one.<\/p>\n\n
This raises an issue that directly concerns the business world. Insurance companies operate on the basis of risk, sustainability and profit margins; that is their model, and there is nothing strange or scandalous about it. The point is that when this logic encounters disability, it all too often risks turning into an implicit form of discrimination, in which the person is no longer seen as a customer, a professional or an economically active individual, but first and foremost as an inconvenience, a potential cost, a situation to be avoided. <\/p>\n\n
And this is precisely where the discussion ceases to be merely technical and takes on a cultural dimension. For years, we have been talking about inclusion, accessibility and diversity as drivers of innovation, as indicators of a company\u2019s maturity, and as values that help an economic ecosystem to evolve; yet when it comes to the practical reality of services \u2013 particularly those that genuinely serve to protect people\u2019s jobs and lives \u2013 that same openness seems to narrow suddenly. <\/p>\n\n
The paradox is even more evident when looking at the sector\u2019s figures. In Italy, the insurance market generated \u20ac182 billion in 2025, representing a 7.8% increase on the previous year, whilst the health sector continues to expand; by 2024, premiums in the accident and health insurance sectors had reached \u20ac8 billion. We are not, therefore, talking about a fragile or marginal sector, but rather a large, well-structured and growing industry. <\/p>\n\n
Added to this is another statistic that should give pause for thought. In 2024, total healthcare expenditure in Italy amounted to \u20ac185.1 billion, or 8.5% of GDP, but only 3.4% was covered by health funds and insurance, whilst the bulk of the cost remained the responsibility of the public sector and citizens themselves. This means that the insurance market, whilst growing, continues to cover a limited yet strategic share of healthcare provision, and for this very reason, access to products cannot be considered a secondary issue. <\/p>\n\n
The point, then, is not just about a single professional; it concerns the way in which the insurance market interprets its own role. If a company can afford to select the easiest clients and leave the most vulnerable on the sidelines, it is certainly doing business, but it is also narrowing the very meaning of the word \u2018protection\u2019. An insurance policy is not designed to cover only those least likely to use it; it is designed to spread the risk, and when entire categories of people find it harder to access these tools, the system ceases to be merely selective and becomes unequal. <\/p>\n\n
In the business world, this is no minor issue. A person with a disability who works independently, registers for VAT, builds up their own income and tries to protect their interests is not asking for assistance; they are trying to compete in the market on the same terms as everyone else. However, if, just when they are trying to protect their business, they encounter disproportionate obstacles, then inclusion comes to a halt long before conferences, panel discussions and communication campaigns. <\/p>\n\n
For this reason, the issue should also be seen as a call for innovation that has yet to be answered. Is it possible that an industry of this size is unable to design smarter products, criteria and models to meet the needs of professionals with disabilities? Is it possible that the system is capable of segmenting every commercial niche, yet comes to a standstill when it comes to balancing risk, fairness and job continuity? <\/p>\n\n
When the market fails to provide an adequate solution, the public sector inevitably comes into play. Not to replace the private sector entirely, but to ensure that the right to protection does not depend on the luck of finding the right broker, the most understanding contact person, or the most open-minded company. This is not about welfare; it is about equal access to the tools that make it possible to work, grow and remain independent. The final question, then, is simple only in appearance: what value does a protection market hold if it more readily protects precisely those least likely to remain unprotected, and how mature is an economic ecosystem that celebrates diversity as a value, yet still struggles to translate this into concrete access to services? In business, as in society, inclusion ceases to be a slogan when it becomes structural. <\/p>\n\n
The author is president of LADI, the Free Association of Disabled Entrepreneurs<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Professionals with disabilities still face too many obstacles in securing employment; the labour market needs to develop specific solutions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":163845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1346],"tags":[1331,1437,1383],"companies":[],"journalist":[3189],"class_list":["post-163846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-must-read","tag-innovation-en","tag-insurtech-en","tag-work","journalist-alessandro-cataldo-en"],"featured_sizes_urls":{"thumbnail":{"src":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/young-businesswoman-in-wheelchair-analyzing-data-i-2026-01-06-00-06-41-utc.webp","width":150,"height":100,"crop":false,"srcset":false,"alt":"insurance for people with disabilities"},"large":{"src":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/young-businesswoman-in-wheelchair-analyzing-data-i-2026-01-06-00-06-41-utc.webp","width":1024,"height":682,"crop":false,"srcset":false,"alt":"insurance for people with disabilities"},"2048x2048":{"src":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/young-businesswoman-in-wheelchair-analyzing-data-i-2026-01-06-00-06-41-utc.webp","width":1280,"height":853,"crop":false,"srcset":false,"alt":"insurance for people with disabilities"}},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n