Genetic discrimination bill moving ahead in Senate

Legislation could help alleviate patients' and physicians' worries about misuse of test results.

By Joel B. Finkelstein, AMNews staff. June 16, 2003.

Washington -- Passage of a bill to bar genetic discrimination would help remove the fear that patients who undergo genetic testing could lose their health insurance or their jobs, experts predicted.

Legislation that inserts protections for patients' genetic information into existing laws has received bipartisan support from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The full Senate could vote on the bill as early as this month.

The bill would add genetic testing results to the list of patient information protected by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which regulates employer-sponsored health plans, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which regulates medical records privacy.

The legislation would bar health plans or employers from using information gleaned from genetic testing to decide whether to provide coverage to a person or to set an individual's premium. It also would prohibit companies from requiring job applicants to be tested for genetic abnormalities before being hired.

"A person's genetic information is the blueprint to their very being," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, (D, Conn.), a co-author of the bill. "It is absolutely essential in this time of fantastic scientific advances and discovery that this information be used for the purpose of preventing, treating and healing diseases, and not as a basis for discrimination."

Experts said the legislation would ease the minds of both physicians and patients.