Genetic anti-bias bill is back

This time, the measure might have enough friends in the Democratic Congress to pass.

By Doug Trapp, AMNews staff. Feb. 19, 2007.

Washington -- The seventh time may be the charm for backers of a bill to ban genetic discrimination in health insurance plans and the workplace.

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act would make it illegal for insurers to deny coverage to a healthy individual based solely on a genetic predisposition to a specific disease and for employers to use individuals' genetic information in personnel decisions.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D, N.Y.) introduced the latest version of the bill Jan. 22, the seventh time she has done so. A previous companion bill unanimously passed the Senate in 2005 but was stymied by unfriendly Republican House leadership, despite having a GOP co-sponsor.

The switch of House control to the Democrats has given the legislation's supporters new hope. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions approved a new bill nearly identical to the House measure with a 19-2 vote on Jan. 31. Hearings already have been scheduled in one of the three House committees the bill must pass through. The legislation has bipartisan support in both chambers.

The American Medical Association backs the bill. It would let patients take advantage of new tests, counseling and therapies "without worrying that such information could be used against them by their health insurers or employers," wrote Michael D. Maves, MD, MBA, the AMA's executive vice president and CEO, in a Jan. 24 letter to Slaughter.

President Bush also supports the measure. "If a person is willing to share his or her genetic information, it is important that that information not be exploited in improper ways -- and Congress can pass good legislation to prevent that from happening," he said at a Jan. 17 National Institutes of Health roundtable on cancer prevention.