Those new Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) final regulations mention disability insurance.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) put the GINA regulations in a 563-page batch of final privacy and date security regulations (RIN: 0945-AA03).
The GINA regulations prevent health plans from using genetic information, such as information about genetic tests and family medical history information, in underwriting.
HHS regulators suggested in the preamble that they believe they have the authority to apply the GINA genetic information restrictions to long-term care insurance (LTCI) plans but will not do so because they are not sure how the restrictions would affect the remaining private LTCI carriers.
HHS regulators want to ask someone at some organization such as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to look into that.
Regulators noted that, "one commenter in support of the proposla indicated that 16 states also regulate the use of genetic information in disability insurance…and it is expected that these numbers will continue to increase."
If states are moving forward in this area, then it's appropriate for the federal government to do so as well, the commenter said.
The HHS regulators did not say they thought the authority to apply the regulations to disability insurers, but, clearly, states are already adopting regulations in that area.
One-sided access to an individual's DNA-based book of life might not make any difference in the traditional group disability market, but it could make difference in the voluntary disability market, and even more in the individual disability market — especially now that Life Technologies sells a sequencer that can decode a human genome in one day for $1,000, and the Wall Street Journal says Gene by Gene has started retailing whole genome sequencing for $5,495 per genome.
Researchers are just in the early stages of understanding what the genes in a genome actually say about an individual's health.
Once Fisher Price starts selling self-genome-sequencing kits for toddlers, and most people learn what conditions they are likely to face throughout their lives starting around the same age when they begin playing with toy stethoscopes, then disability insurers may have to work harder to educate regulators and consumers about the challenges involved with insuring a burning house when the owner knows that the house is burning and the insurer, sadly, does not.
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