Insurers Agree To Ban On Compulsory Genetic Tests
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday November 23, 2000
Compulsory genetic testing of life insurance applicants has been banned for two years under an agreement announced by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission yesterday.
But thousands of Australians who have already undergone genetic tests would be required to disclose the results when taking out insurance.
The agreement follows an outcry over an initial ACCC decision which critics said would allow for insurance candidates to be coerced into taking tests.
The commission chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said yesterday that without the new agreement, ``it is possible that required genetic testing could be introduced soon and that discounts and surcharges would be applied to insurance premiums on the basis of those tests".
The agreement with the Investment and Finance Services Association, representing the $336 billion invested in life cover, will allow time for a Federal Government inquiry to sort through privacy and discrimination issues of genetic testing.
Genetic tests currently available enable the fairly accurate prediction of inherited conditions such as the fatal Huntington's disease, cancer and heart disease.
The chief executive of the Investment and Finance Services Association, Ms Lynn Ralph, argued the tests could assist in ruling out predisposition to health problems, reducing policy loadings.
But Professor Fels said life companies did not discount premiums on account of ``favourable" outcomes. ``They do however vary policies for applicants whose tests show that they are an insurance risk, by charging higher premiums or even by refusing to provide any cover," he said.
The director of the NSW Genetic Education Program, Dr Kristine Barlow-Stewart, said the agreement underlined the need for careful analysis of each genetic test and its actuarial implications.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald