Insurers mull cancer gene tests

[Pooeypants]

The BBC reports

UK insurers have told an advisory body they may seek approval to use the results of genetic tests for inherited cancers in setting premiums after 2007. This would allow insurers to ask about tests for gene mutations linked to breast and ovarian cancer. Approval applies to high value policies only; a moratorium exists on the use of genetic tests in all other policies. But campaigners fear such proposals could be expanded if the moratorium is not renewed once it runs out in 2011. At present, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has to ask the Genetics and Insurance Committee (GAIC), which advises the government on the issue, for permission to request details from customers of genetic tests. Since 1999, the GAIC has approved just one application, which allows insurers to use predictive test results for Huntington's disease in life insurance policies over £500,000. "The ABI has said that it may come forward with applications covering specific predictive genes for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, but not until 2008 at the earliest," the Department of Health's Genetics and Insurance Committee said in its most recent update.

Has anyone seen the movie Gattaca? Now, I'm not suggesting that's what might happen in the real world but it's a scary prospect, is it not?

[tman_ndsu08]

I don't really care what ridiculous parameters insurance companies invent to try and make their organized crime even more profitable.


We need to get rid of legislation requiring people to have insurance. That's the problem.