New law in US protects against genetic descrimination

[photon]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/108399.php

The Coalition for Genetic Fairness commends President George W. Bush for signing into law today the first civil rights legislation of the new millennium, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). GINA is the first and only federal legislation that will provide protections against discrimination based on an individual's genetic information in health insurance coverage and employment settings.

Interesting. On the surface I guess I support the idea.

One thing though does make me laugh.. so insurance companies can use very broad inaccurate information such as family history to discriminate against people, often coming to wrong conclusions, while they can't use specific accurate information?

[CM ONE]

They don't use that to deny policy's. Only claims.

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by CM ONE

They don't use that to deny policy's. Only claims.

Maybe I'm not understanding what you're saying.

So an insurance company will sell a policy to someone with a family history of heart disease. Presumably, they'll accept the premium payments and everything. But then when it comes time to make a claim under the policy, it's denied on the basis of this information?

[ah123]

Originally Posted by fredr123

Maybe I'm not understanding what you're saying.

So an insurance company will sell a policy to someone with a family history of heart disease. Presumably, they'll accept the premium payments and everything. But then when it comes time to make a claim under the policy, it's denied on the basis of this information?

Not sure if insurance companies do that or not, but if you buy mortgage insurance from a bank, you might run that risk...

CBC had something on this a while back...

the bank staffers selling mortgage insurance are unlicenced and rarely trained to explain the details and legalities of those insurance products. The result is people who pay premiums and think they are covered, only to realize later that they are not.

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2008/02/06/in_denial/

[PYroMaNiaC]

This is the exact reason members of my family do not have genetic testing done. If the tests come back postive for the cancer gene and we don't disclose that to our insurance companies, they do not have to cover us. If we don't know, then they can't deny us on full disclosure legalese.

Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.