While much of the concern about inappropriate discrimination based on genotype has focused on health insurance, other forms of insurance, especially life and disability, are also at issue. This is comparable to the fraction of non-relatives from the same geographical region who had not been tested for BRCA1 but who had a family history of breast or ovarian cancer. The national average of adult women carrying life insurance is also similar. Combined, these data suggest that neither family history of cancer nor BRCA1 status affected the demand for insurance.
All insurance companies survive financially by discriminating against high-risk applicants.
A pervasive concern about genetic testing among consumers and their advocates is that insurers would use unfavorable results to deny insurance. Fortunately, insurance companies do not appear to have mounted any extensive or systematic program for using genetic information in making underwriting decisions. Genetic testing, adverse selection, and the demand for life insurance. All material on this website is protected by copyright. GeneSage Inc. All rights reserved.