Term Life Insurance Articles
Will Genetics Hurt Those Seeking Life Insurance In California?
2010-01-06
Medicare estimates that by 2020, some 12 million Americans will need long-term care, be it a stay in a nursing home or a care worker attending their home. As the "baby-boomer" generation continues to age and drive a larger portion of the population into the upper echelons, the need for both better care and cost-effective life insurance grows. There is concern, however, that life insurance providers will, with the advent of new and more effective ways to determine a patient's predisposition to illness, reject potential policyholders or provide term life insurance quotes so high that they would be beyond the scope of most family's financial abilities.
Passed in November of 2009, the federal Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act or "GINA" sought to prevent employers and group health care providers from refusing people service or charging them exorbitant amounts in premiums based on any pre-existing genetic conditions or dispositions. The focus of the Act was to protect the privacy of the citizenry from undue scrutiny from businesses seeking to capitalize on information such as this. However, the Act did not include personal life insurance providers within its scope, leaving that responsibility up to individual states. As a result, states such as California, which have let privacy protection legislation expire, life insurance coverage could be affected for those with genetic issues if the insurance provider has access to that information.
The concern is simply that a doctor, in running a standard battery of tests, might discover that a patient had a genetic predisposition toward developing a particular disease, such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. Even if the patient displays none of the symptoms, and may never acquire the illness, their genetic make up leaves them more vulnerable to it. If that same patient then attempted to acquire a life insurance policy, and the insurer asked for medical documentation proving good health, the genetic test results would be included. Since GINA does not include private insurance companies and in California, as mentioned above, there are no privacy laws protecting against this kind of genetic snooping, and the insurance company could use that test result as a justification to increase coverage costs or deny coverage all together.
According to Mark Billingsley, a representative for the California State Insurance Commissioner, there "appears to be a giant loophole" in the current insurance code regarding individual life insurance, long-term care and genetic testing. And while Rich Kupetsky, a vice-president of life insurance provider Pacific Southwest Financial, stated that he's never come across a situation in which an insurance company has denied coverage or raised premiums based on a genetic propensity, he also stated that this type of information would be of interest for underwriters before moving forward with a policy. In other words, since there are currently no privacy laws prohibiting personal insurance providers from using this information, they will do so. While there are no guarantees, the current situation in states such as California leaves insurance providers with a blank slate and patients with unfavorable genetic history in danger of higher premiums or no coverage at all.
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Medicare estimates that by 2020, some 12 million Americans will need long-term care, be it a stay in a nursing home or a care worker attending their home. As the "baby-boomer" generation continues to age and drive a larger portion of the population into the upper echelons, the need for both better care and cost-effective life insurance grows. There is concern, however, that life insurance providers will, with the advent of new and more effective ways to determine a patient's predisposition to illness, reject potential policyholders or provide term life insurance quotes so high that they would be beyond the scope of most family's financial abilities.
Passed in November of 2009, the federal Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act or "GINA" sought to prevent employers and group health care providers from refusing people service or charging them exorbitant amounts in premiums based on any pre-existing genetic conditions or dispositions. The focus of the Act was to protect the privacy of the citizenry from undue scrutiny from businesses seeking to capitalize on information such as this. However, the Act did not include personal life insurance providers within its scope, leaving that responsibility up to individual states. As a result, states such as California, which have let privacy protection legislation expire, life insurance coverage could be affected for those with genetic issues if the insurance provider has access to that information.
The concern is simply that a doctor, in running a standard battery of tests, might discover that a patient had a genetic predisposition toward developing a particular disease, such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. Even if the patient displays none of the symptoms, and may never acquire the illness, their genetic make up leaves them more vulnerable to it. If that same patient then attempted to acquire a life insurance policy, and the insurer asked for medical documentation proving good health, the genetic test results would be included. Since GINA does not include private insurance companies and in California, as mentioned above, there are no privacy laws protecting against this kind of genetic snooping, and the insurance company could use that test result as a justification to increase coverage costs or deny coverage all together.
According to Mark Billingsley, a representative for the California State Insurance Commissioner, there "appears to be a giant loophole" in the current insurance code regarding individual life insurance, long-term care and genetic testing. And while Rich Kupetsky, a vice-president of life insurance provider Pacific Southwest Financial, stated that he's never come across a situation in which an insurance company has denied coverage or raised premiums based on a genetic propensity, he also stated that this type of information would be of interest for underwriters before moving forward with a policy. In other words, since there are currently no privacy laws prohibiting personal insurance providers from using this information, they will do so. While there are no guarantees, the current situation in states such as California leaves insurance providers with a blank slate and patients with unfavorable genetic history in danger of higher premiums or no coverage at all.
