Genetic Screening for Insurance
...to complete to determine their risk. Many of us do our best to give complete and accurate information but wouldn’t it be much easier to have your finger pricked and a drop of your blood analyzed instead of trying to remember your complete medical history. Genetic information could provide the correct preventive health measures for your individual needs during pregnancy. Early detection of a disease could lead to prevention prior to the disease manifesting its self. “Several insurance associations have recognized that an early genetic diagnosis, allows the applicant the opportunity to make better informed choices that is changes in lifestyle and preventative intervention potentially leading to a better prognosis.” The mere implication of the information that can be obtained from genetic testing implies it would be beneficial in determining risk rates and assisting physicians with medical treatment. However, on the other hand what if you have a life threatening illness that was discovered as the result of genetic testing and is incurable at this time, information of this caliber could impact your life in a negative manner and increase your health risk. This could cause extreme stress which could lead to depression and any number of other diseases. “Emotional burdens may be placed on an individual by their physician who may not be properly trained in genetic counseling. This fact may also cause an increase in malpractice suits against physicians, because there are only about 1,000 qualified specialists practicing. Based on the previous statement although insurance companies have made huge strides to educate physicians the medical community in general is not properly trained to handle the backlash of possible lawsuits that could be generated from misinformation from a physician. One of the largest barriers to genetic testing at this t...