Genetic Testing and Long Term Care Insurance
By jana on Mar 24, 2008 in Long Term Care Insurance, Technology and LTC
It’s like a scene out of Gattaca. I can’t let anyone grab a piece of my DNA for fear that they’ll find out I’m predisposed to some horrible disease and I will be shunned from society. Worse yet, no one will marry me because our offspring will be genetically inferior. Worse yet, I will not be able to get Long Term Care Insurance!
I featured an article on genetic testing in my “In the News” posting on Friday, but felt the need to comment a little further on it. The article out of the Salisbury, Maryland Daily Times discusses how legislators are trying to prohibit long term care insurers from using genetic testing to determine coverage. This comes on the heels of legislation in that state to also prohibit the use of genetic testing to determine health insurance coverage. Some of the obvious ramifications of genetic discrimination include higher premiums, rejection of insurance, or cancellation of existing policies.
Now, before we get too excited over this right now we need to realize that the DNA testing that is available right now can only tell us if we have a predisposition for a disease such as Alzheimer’s, certain cancers, diabetes or heart disease. The markers found in our genes do not indicate that we have or will have these diseases. The experts are saying that they can combine your genetic markers with your environmental indicators to find your odds for getting some of these diseases.
Critics say that this is entirely too premature. These tests are not regulated and are not even fully accurate. They are the infancy of understanding the genetic codes and insurance companies should not make decisions based on the tests because it is all so preliminary. The Today Show ran a light story on this several weeks ago. The 7 minute video is worth a watch if you know little about this subject.
Back to the legislation in Maryland…the article interviews Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance who makes a good point. He says that it is the genetic testing itself that is encouraging people to purchase long term care insurance. Makes sense. If I find out that I have 5 out of 7 genetic markers for a stroke and I know that I don’t exercise or eat right, I might be more apt to go out an buy a policy.
Insurers are against the legislation, but amendments have been proposed with the help of the insurers. So we’ll have to see where this one ends up.
What do you think? Should Long Term Care Insurers be allowed to use genetic testing when determining Long Term Care coverage?
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