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Protection from this comes from laws that ban DNA-based policies, not by being secretive about sequencing. If it is allowed, insurers will have no need to obtai

Protection from this comes from laws that ban DNA-based policies, not by being secretive about sequencing. If it is allowed, insurers will have no need to obtain DNA sequences in devious ways, they will just ask and refuse cover or charge more when clients refuse to get sampled.

m12k 5y ago
Sure, but being secretive about your DNA seems like the prudent course of action until those laws are in place
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  “Passed in 2008, a federal law called the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) made it illegal for health insurance providers in the United States to use genetic information in decisions about a person's health insurance eligibility or coverage.” Also prevents employment discrimination based on genetics. https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/policy-issues/Genetic-Discrimination https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/policy-issues/Genetic-... (disclosure: have had my DNA sequenced by multiple organizations, and it's publicly available)
  - jrumbut 5y ago
    What I worry about is having this data laundered through a couple of vendors. "How could we know our vendor's vendor was using genetic information in their proprietary risk score?" "How could we know our client's client was using our score for life, health, or auto insurance/employment/lending/etc decisions?" It's a "can't unring a bell" situation and the gaps in the regulations and the incentives for bad behavior are enormous.
    - andrewxdiamond 5y ago
      Because insurance is regulated against this. They can’t just Willy-nilly get data and “scores” from uncontrolled sources.
      - emteycz 5y ago
        Mortgages in 2008 were regulated too
        andrewxdiamond 5y ago
        Subprime mortgages aren’t illegal? Insurers have auditing requirements to prove what goes into the policy calculation. It is impossible to hide illegal data use at any meaningful scale, and no insurance agency is looking to save a buck on a small number of clients. Your comparison is irrelevant.
        emteycz 5y ago
        Illegal or not, look what happened after 2008. Clearly regulation has failed, so there is no reason to think it won't fail in the case of DNA data.
        thrashh 5y ago
        There was never regulation to begin with.
        emteycz 5y ago
        I am absolutely sure there is no one who would call mortgages "unregulated" in 2008. That the regulation is insufficient was determined later - and way too late.
      - kortilla 5y ago
        Oh sweet summer child. The astute business person will construct a score that happens to correlate with these known genetic defects and then sell it to insurance anyway with the plausible cover correlated source.
        jjeaff 5y ago
        That really isn't how most health insurance works in the US now. As far as I know, there really is no such think as refusing health insurance to an eligible person. Now other types of insurance like life, home, auto, those are a different story. But regular health insurance just has to accept your application.
  - sathomasga 5y ago
    Note that the law does *not* apply to other types of insurance. Life insurance, for example

m12k 5y ago

Sure, but being secretive about your DNA seems like the prudent course of action until those laws are in place

toomuchtodo 5y ago
“Passed in 2008, a federal law called the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) made it illegal for health insurance providers in the United States to use genetic information in decisions about a person's health insurance eligibility or coverage.” Also prevents employment discrimination based on genetics. https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/policy-issues/Genetic-Discrimination https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/policy-issues/Genetic-... (disclosure: have had my DNA sequenced by multiple organizations, and it's publicly available)
- jrumbut 5y ago
  What I worry about is having this data laundered through a couple of vendors. "How could we know our vendor's vendor was using genetic information in their proprietary risk score?" "How could we know our client's client was using our score for life, health, or auto insurance/employment/lending/etc decisions?" It's a "can't unring a bell" situation and the gaps in the regulations and the incentives for bad behavior are enormous.
  - andrewxdiamond 5y ago
    Because insurance is regulated against this. They can’t just Willy-nilly get data and “scores” from uncontrolled sources.
    - emteycz 5y ago
      Mortgages in 2008 were regulated too
      - andrewxdiamond 5y ago
        Subprime mortgages aren’t illegal? Insurers have auditing requirements to prove what goes into the policy calculation. It is impossible to hide illegal data use at any meaningful scale, and no insurance agency is looking to save a buck on a small number of clients. Your comparison is irrelevant.
        emteycz 5y ago
        Illegal or not, look what happened after 2008. Clearly regulation has failed, so there is no reason to think it won't fail in the case of DNA data.
        thrashh 5y ago
        There was never regulation to begin with.
        emteycz 5y ago
        I am absolutely sure there is no one who would call mortgages "unregulated" in 2008. That the regulation is insufficient was determined later - and way too late.
    - kortilla 5y ago
      Oh sweet summer child. The astute business person will construct a score that happens to correlate with these known genetic defects and then sell it to insurance anyway with the plausible cover correlated source.
      - jjeaff 5y ago
        That really isn't how most health insurance works in the US now. As far as I know, there really is no such think as refusing health insurance to an eligible person. Now other types of insurance like life, home, auto, those are a different story. But regular health insurance just has to accept your application.
- sathomasga 5y ago
  Note that the law does *not* apply to other types of insurance. Life insurance, for example