Stardate 20010807.1916 (On Screen): It is now possible to test people for genetic predispositions for a large number of diseases, which may cost a major amount of money to treat later. Since insurance companies don't like paying money, the temptation is there to test people for these diseases and to reject them early, even though they're perfectly healthy, because they
might become terribly sick later. In some cases it's inevitable. If you carry the gene for Huntington's disease, you are going to eventually die from it. There is no escape. But there are other cases where it is not as straightforward. A gene has been found, for instance, which substantially raises the possibility that a woman will develop breast cancer. But it isn't certain, and some women carrying that gene will be fine.
Nearly all of us carry a handful of negative genes, but that's not the point. The point is that people should not be discriminated against for what they are if they can't change it. But for the insurance companies it's a dilemma. Insurance, by its nature, involves taking money from a lot of people and giving most of it to the few people who end up really needing it. But if you can prevent that payment then you can set your rates lower and this makes you more attractive to customers (corporations looking for group plans) who are primarily interested in how much it's going to cost. So if you, the insurer, can finger and exclude ahead of time the people who are going to really cost, then you can beat your opponents. As long as any insurance company does this, they all have to. And that's what they're beginning to do. The only way to prevent that is with a law, and it looks like we're going to get one. Whew!
I suspect that the insurance companies won't really oppose the idea, as long as the law applies to them all. What they really want is a level playing field. Everyone doing it or no-one doing it are equally good cases. (discuss)
