Anti-genetic discrimination bill approved

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Anti-genetic discrimination bill approved

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24403453/

Companies would no longer be able to use genetic information like a

person's predisposition for breast cancer, sickle cell or diabetes to

make insurance or job decisions under a bill passed by Congress on

Thursday.

The House voted 414-1 for the legislation a week after it passed the

Senate on a 95-0 vote. The bill would bar health insurance companies

from using genetic information to set premiums or determine

enrollment eligibility. Similarly, employers could not use genetic

information in hiring, firing or promotion decisions.

Rep. Ron , R-Texas, was the only member of Congress to vote

against the bill.

President Bush is expected to sign it into law.

Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., said that for years doctors have been

forced to tell women whose families have a history of breast cancer

to refuse genetic testing for fear of discrimination.

" They have recommended to them that until a bill such as the one we

are passing today becomes law in this country, they should not put at

risk their health insurance, " Slaughter said.

Lifesaving concerns

The use of genetics to determine insurance and benefit eligibility is

not unprecedented.

In the 1970s, several insurers denied coverage to blacks who carried

the gene for sickle cell anemia. The Lawrence Berkeley National

Laboratory in California secretly tested workers for sickle cell

trait and other genetic disorders from the 1960s through 1993;

workers were told it was routine cholesterol screening.

In another incident, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co.

paid 36 employees $2.2 million in 2002 to settle a lawsuit in which

the workers claimed the company sought to genetically test them

without their knowledge after they had submitted work-related injury

claims. The railroad denied that it violated the law or engaged in

discrimination.

Without genetic testing, researchers say it will be more difficult to

find early, lifesaving therapy for a wide range of diseases with

hereditary links such as breast and prostate cancer, diabetes, heart

disease and Parkinson's disease.

" We will never unlock the great promise of the Human Genome Project

if Americans are too afraid to get genetic testing, " said Rep. Judy

Biggert, R-Ill., who sponsored the bill along with Slaughter.

Each person probably has six or more genetic mutations that place

them at risk for some disease, according to the National Human Genome

Research Institute. That does not means that a disease will develop,

researchers said, just that the person is more likely to get it than

someone without the genetic mutation.

Congressional efforts to set federal standards to protect people from

genetic discrimination go back more than a decade, to a time when

there were only a small number of genetic tests.

But now, with the mapping of the human genome in 2003, people have

access to far more information about their hereditary disposition to

such crippling afflictions as cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease

or Lou Gehrig's disease.

" Currently the fear of misuse of genetic information is preventing

people from getting these important genetic tests done, " said Rep.

Pete Sessions, R-Texas. " The refusal to utilize effective genetic

tests hurts individuals, researchers, and doctors alike. Lack of

testing denies individuals important medical information that they

could otherwise use to be proactively managing within their health

with their doctor. "

According to National Human Genome Research Institute, 41 states

already have enacted legislation related to genetic discrimination in

health insurance and 31 states adopted laws regarding genetic

discrimination in the workplace.

There has never been a federal law, although then-President Clinton

issued an executive order early in his administration to ban the

federal government — the nation's largest employer — from demanding

that employees undergo any sort of genetic test or from considering a

person's genetic information in hiring or promotion decisions.