Personal Genomics and the End of Insurance

Not too long from now, your genes are likely to be at war with your health insurer. Within the next few years, it should become fairly easy and inexpensive to get a rough-and-ready readout of your own genetic code that you inherited from your ancestors, one that you can scan for information on which diseases you're most likely to contract, which drugs will help you the most, and ultimately, even how your children might turn out. In other words, a brave new world of genetic transparency is on its way, one that promises to empower individuals to an extent that's still difficult to grasp.

While this at first appears to be good news for individuals, one shudders when thinking about what happens when governmental agencies have access to the same information about you. Even worse, what about insurance companies?

Writing in VentureBeat, David P. Hamilton says that such information might not be so good for consumers. Say your own genome scan shows that you're not predisposed to cancer, heart disease, or diabetes - you might very easily opt for a low-cost, high-deductible healthcare plan that wouldn't have to do much more than cover you in the case of an unexpected accident. By contrast, if you find you're particularly likely to develop early-onset Alzheimer's disease, as you enter middle age, you might not only load up on health coverage, but also pick up a long-term care plan to ensure you're not a burden to your family.

However, if each consumer has that much knowledge about his or her own life expectancy, insurance company profits would plummet. The proposed Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) would bar insurers and employers from discriminating on the basis of genomic information or services. The bill is currently in Congress but appears to be stalled. If passed, GINA would force insurance companies to charge each customer the same amount, regardless of genetic profile. Sophisticated consumers could pick and choose insurance policies at will. Should GINA become law, Hamilton predicts the death of both health and life insurance.

If GINA does not become law, the insurance industry undoubtedly will start charging very high rates to those of high risk. Armed with the same information, consumers will be more knowledgeable than ever about their own risks, reducing their need for insurance. If GINA does not become law, both health and life insurance will probably disappear.

That's right, whether or not the new legislation passes, the impact of knowing your own genetic profile will be huge. Either way, insurance companies suffer. Hamilton believes that the loss of traditional insurance actually might be a good thing but then points out that few Americans have given much thought to what should to replace the private-insurance system.

You can read this fascinating article at http://venturebeat.com/2007/09/11/personal-genomics-and-the-end-of-insurance.

Comments

[Happy Dae]

Al Huxley aside, I think it will take more than a scare from insurance companies to stampede Americans into socialized medicine. True, Karl Marx succeeded to some extent with much of Europe and the Communist countries. But I think we're an intelligent enough society to consider the value of freedom and choice vs. the panic of the doomsayers. Going to a national health care can reduce the quality of the service. My father was a postman, but look at the postal service. If they were efficient, then UPS, Purolator, and FedEx would never have gained ground. What commercial service has government ever done better than private enterprise?

Look, history bears out the fact that MORE government means LESS freedom. This is a timely alert. Let's put our minds together and determine the BEST solution.

Opposing viewpoints welcome.

Happy Dae.
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com/ssg1.htm

[Chick]

Great GENEALOGY article Dick. And thanks for the history lesson Happy. Adolf succeeded to some extent to. Yes, I'm sure Big Business is just itching to scare us into Socialism. And government put food on your table and a roof over your head as well as gave your father a pension AND medical.
Remember, more genealogy, less talk radio.

[Linda R. Enz]

Once more big business wins what about the middle class american who is slowly becoming a vanishing breed? Who do you think has paid for but has not been eligablefor many of the benefits that many americans are receiving? What will you do when they no longer exist? Who will pay the bills then-the rich-not likely! Something has to be done about heath care in our country-it's just plain criminal what is happening.

[Margaret]

There are three ways to pay for medical care:

(1) Pay out of your own pocket (save for those rainy days);

(2) Force someone else to pay;

(3) Stiff the provider.

Until WWII times, when employers offered limited health insurance to get and keep workers, the first option applied for everyone unless they went to charity hospitals, in which case options 2 and 3 applied. Costs were historically low because without the wonders of modern medicine, death claimed most seriously ill people and the elderly.

The startling advances in medicine are very costly; few people are able to fund all the care that they think they deserve. They prefer to use their savings, if any, for funding their pleasures or their children's inheritances. Most Americans seem to think that only options 2 and 3 work for them now.

Where desires are infinite and means are finite, the crunch comes. Either care will be rationed by economic or by legal means -- but rationed it will ultimately be. The last of the lucky generation is just now bankrupting Medicaid and Medicare because the younger generation has not yet found a way to shuck off the burden of the ever-increasing cost.

[Chick]

Margaret,
(1) Infants don't have pockets, the working poor don't have savings.
(2) I gladly pay my share to live in the Greatest Country in the World.
(3) Our means will be infinite once were out of Iraq.
(4) I'm against returning to charity hospitals, but let's keep penicillin and antibiotics.

[Patsy]

How do we, the citizens of this great United States stop the take over of our lives? Our American society may not be perfect but it is the best. If it isn't what makes other ethnic groups want to come here? I am in my 70s and I see a slow take over of our freedoms. I worry for my family, my friends and my church members. Patsy

[Betsy]

It amazes me that when some think about equal health care for all Americans, they call it socialized medicine and condem it. What do we call our educational system that allows all children to have an equal opportunity for education? Socialized education?