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Life insurance affected by tests

Fri, 10 Jul 2009

Those people that take genetic tests to discover the risk of disease development could face exclusion from life insurance, according to experts. Insurance companies could also use the test results as a way of hiking up premiums, even if decades have passed since the test was completed.

This type of genetic testing is currently the subject of a moratorium amongst insurance companies in the UK. They are prevented from asking insurance customers if they have taken the tests, or ordering them to have one. However, this agreement is set to run out in 2014, with fears that results could affect life insurance policies when this happens.

Genewatch UK spokeswoman Helen Wallace reportedly commented: 'There are women deciding whether to take the test now who do not know if they buy insurance later on, whether at that point the moratorium will have ended and there will be a requirement from the insurance industry to see the results. Women do worry about the future insurance implications when they consider whether or not to take a test, so you have a specific circumstance where a medical decision that you take may be influenced by knowing whether or not the insurance industry will have access.'
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