DNA Usage by Insurance Companies

In a 1996 Georgetown University poll, 22 percent of families polled were denied health insurance based on genetic risks. While state legislatures began addressing this issue in the early 1990s, federal government regulation was not fully enacted until 2008.

Federal Law

• Technological advances in the last two decades of the 20th century spurred the need for legislation to prevent genetic discrimination in health insurance coverage. In the United States, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) specifically prohibits the use of genetic information when determining health insurance coverage, including both group and private plans. GINA was signed into law in 2008 and became fully enacted in November 2009. Prior to GINA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) prohibited discrimination on the basis of genetics in group insurance policies only.

State Law

• State legislatures began enacting genetic discrimination laws as early as 1992. Rather than prohibiting the use of genetic information, many of these approaches were aimed at prohibiting the disclosure of this information to third parties. However, GINA now sets the minimum requirements to which all states must adhere. States can enact legislation above and beyond GINA as long as they do not infringe on existing federal civil rights laws.

Exclusions and Additions

• GINA does not address genetic discrimination by providers of life, disability or long-term care insurance. Many states, such as California, have enacted laws which also prohibit life and disability insurers from discriminating strictly on predictive genetic information.