Good news for those (legitimately) fearing possible insurance company reprisal from genetic information. According to a Scientific American article:
President Bush yesterday signed legislation into law that will bar health insurance companies or employers from denying or canceling coverage, hiking premiums or making decisions on hiring, firing and compensation based on genetic test results.
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) sailed through the Senate in late April, following a year of political wrangling, and a week later passed the House by a 414-to-1 margin.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), a microbiologist with a master’s degree in public health, introduced the first genetic antidiscrimination legislation 13 years ago. GINA supporters believe the act will encourage people to take advantage of the more than 1,000 genetic tests now available to diagnose and assess risk of diseases without fear of losing their jobs or being denied insurance coverage for doing so.
Hopefully with this protection there will be more preventative health testing that includes genetic screening of risks for heart disease, cancer and heritable disorders. As they say, “forewarned is forearmed.”
Tags: genetic discrimination, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, genome, GINA
May 31, 2008 at 10:39 am
Thanks for the post. You’ve forwarned and forearmed me…to bad that it has to done…but so is the way of our world.