Genetics and Life Insurance
Earlier this year Australian Life Insurance company NIB offered its customers half price DNA tests. The cut price tests – down to $500 from $999 were offered to 5000 of their policy holders. The firm responsible for carrying out the tests is Californian based firm Navigenics.
NIB insists that the offer was simply an altruistic attempt to help customers get a better understanding of their health risks; in fact their chief executive, Mark Fitzgibbon says that he has had the test himself and has “found it to be an invaluable experience.”
DNA Tests have Financial Implications for Life Insurance
Fitzgibbon’s statement may be genuine but, for some, the issue of life insurers encouraging customers to undergo genetic testing has privacy and financial implications. Once someone has taken a DNA test, they could be forced to declare the results to a life insurance company; If the results of the tests are less than satisfactory the life insurance company could raise their premiums – and if potential policy holders fail to declare having taken the tests their policy could later be rendered invalid.
Life Insurance and Genetic Discrimination
The fact is: There have been a number of cases whereby individuals have been refused life coverage due to their DNA profiles. Kristine Barlow Stewart, an academic and board member of the Australian Government’s Human Genetics Advisory Committee has done research into this so-called ‘genetic discrimination’ and finds the Life Insurer’s offer concerning. She has stated that “the move has raised red flags for me.”
Reliability of DNA Tests Questioned
Apart from the implications for life insurance policies, some academics and researchers are questioning the reliability of the data produced by firms like Navigenics, since many discrepancies have been found between gene scans of the different companies carrying them out.
NIB however insists that the results of the tests are private between Navigenics and the policy holders, even though the small print states that “you may be required to disclose genetic test results, including any underlying health risks and conditions which the tests reveal, to life insurance or superannuation providers.”
USA and UK have Voluntary Agreement regarding Use of Genetic Information
The US, like the UK, has at present an unofficial voluntary agreement banning the use of genetic information for underwriting life insurance policies. The Genetics Information Discrimination Act 2008 bans the use of genetic information for both health insurance companies and in the workplace. Life Insurers are, however watching with interest how things develop for NIB, and future pairings between the booming consumer genomics and life insurance companies cannot be entirely ruled out.
Source
New Scientist (Feb 2010) , Pharmacogenomics Reporter(Mar 2010)
photo credit: net_efekt