With the accelerating pace of gene discovery, we will soon be able to identify quickly a wide range of risk factors, and to find effective preventive and treatment strategies that will lower the personal, social, and perhaps the financial costs of disease in the future.
Every human being carries genes that predispose to common illnesses.
In many circumstances, as with VHL, knowing this information can be beneficial, as it allows individualized strategies to be designed to reduce the risk of illness. As knowledge about the genetic basis of common disorders grows, so does the potential for discrimination in health insurance coverage for an ever increasing number of Americans. While health care itself is not in jeopardy for people who live in countries with health care for all citizens, similar concerns frequently arise in obtaining life insurance. The use of genetic information to exclude high-risk people from health care by denying coverage or charging prohibitive rates will limit or nullify the anticipated benefits of genetic research. In addition to the real and potentially devastating consequences of being denied health insurance, the fear of discrimination has other undesirable effects.