Genetic information could make life insurance more expensive

Fri, 08 Jun 2007

The expense of life insurance and health insurance policies could soar if insurance companies are given access to genetic test results. UK insurance firms are looking for approval to access genetic information as early as next year, leading to a fierce debate between opposing camps of academics.

According to a professor of biomedical ethics, Richard Ashcroft of the University of London, the information could be misunderstood by life insurance firms and lead to premium weighting for unfair reasons. He reportedly commented: "It is important to note how genetic information can be misunderstood, or its importance overestimated, and therefore used in discriminatory ways that would not be justified. For instance, if a woman were to test positive for a mutation in the BRCA1 gene, a naive insurance salesperson might think that she represented a poor risk for life insurance, even though the actuarial advice might be that this made little difference to her life expectancy."

Taking the opposing role, Professor Soren Holm of Cardiff Law School informed the journal that genetic information should be treated the same as any other type of health record. Holm reportedly commented: "Genetic information is not special. It is not inherently more specific, predictive, sensitive, or private than other kinds of health information."
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