Health Insurance Articles

How Genetic Illnesses Are Treated By Standard Health Insurance Plans

2010-03-28

For health insurance providers to determine premiums, they take into account health, lifestyle, family history, and diagnostic testing. There is a concern by many consumers today that genetic testing information could be added to this list, causing major barriers for those with unlucky genetics. Genetic testing is currently very expensive and the science of genetics is not at the point where it can determine to a high degree of probability who will get which diseases, there are just too many factors involved.

Genetic testing is an option for health consumers today. If they want to find out what kinds of illnesses they have higher risks for, relative to others in the population, they can get tested. But there is the question of that one serious potential drawback: genetic discrimination. Society is yet to work out the tradeoffs involved in this new technology. What we know for sure is that very few of the diseases covered by health insurance plans have genetic testing available. In fact, there are very few diseases that can be tested currently. So the concern is that genetic discrimination would disfavor those few unfortunate consumers who have genetic propensities for diseases available to test.

The legal question is about whether a health insurance company should treat a consumer differently because of their gene mutations. Health insurers do not currently require genetic testing, but many consumers are concerned about the potential for discrimination in the future because of the technology available. There is a law recently passed by congress called the Genetic Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, which highlights the issue and makes unacceptable use of genetic information in health insurance illegal. This federal law is in addition to the more than twenty states that have passed laws to make it impossible for health insurance companies to require genetic testing.

The end result of improved genetic testing will be improved information for consumers about their personal health. Health insurance plans will have to eventually use this information to cover more preventative health care. Consumers may have mixed emotions about improved genetic information as the science continues to grow. People will not find out they are "safe" from any problematic genes; instead, everybody will realize they have something they need to work on with preventative treatment. While some consumers will have many potential problems to encounter, nobody will be immune from having some problem with their genetics. Consumers in the future will require the kind of health insurance coverage that looks at genetic testing results and deals with them before they become costly diseases. The health insurance cost analysis may become more about the timing of treatment than the type of disease.