Insurance industry rejects call to stop using DNA

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday February 16, 2010

Nick Miller

THE insurance industry has rejected a call to stop using prospective customers' genetic profiles to raise insurance premiums or deny cover.A similar, voluntary ban in Britain was introduced in 2001 and later extended to at least 2014, but the local industry has refused to follow suit, despite concerns they may be deterring people from potentially life-saving genetic testing.Last year a group of Melbourne academics wrote to the the Investment and Financial Services Association to warn that people were turning down genetic tests because they did not want to adversely influence insurance cover. The number of genetic tests taken by Australians has more than doubled in the past three years, and continues to rise. Yesterday the Herald revealed that NIB had offered some customers a cut-price genetic test, to help them get a better understanding of their health risks.Doctors are increasingly using more specific tests to identify genetic mutations that dramatically increase the risk of cancers. But when insurers sell non-community-rated policies such as life insurance, disability cover and income protection they can demand to see the results of any genetic test.