WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters Health) - While science is moving rapidly to develop more tests to detect genetic abnormalities that can lead to disease, the public is growing more wary about the possibility of their genetic information falling into the wrong hands, witnesses told a U.S. House subcommittee Thursday.
More than 1,000 different genetic tests are now in use or in development, Kathy Hudson, Director of the Johns Hopkins University Genetic and Public Policy Center, told the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations.
Yet a poll conducted this spring by the Center found that 92% of those polled think employers are not entitled to know if the results of an employee’s genetic test puts that worker at increased risk for disease, and 80% said health insurance companies should not have access to that information, either. “Opposition to employer and health insurers’ access to genetic test results has grown since a similar survey was conducted by the Genetics and Public Policy Center in 2002,” Hudson told the subcommittee.
Hudson and other witnesses at the hearing said patients are not likely to feel comfortable taking advantage of new genetic testing and potential treatments until they are assured that information will not be used against them by either employers or insurers. “What are people afraid of? They’re afraid they’re going to lose their health insurance,” testified Jane Massey Licata, a professor of patent law at Rutgers School of Law in New Jersey.
Lawrence Lorber, however, representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told the subcommittee that legislation is not needed. “Employer collection and misuse of genetic information remains largely confined to the pages of science fiction,” he said.
Even in cases in which discrimination does take place, he said, existing laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act “are more than ample to deal with the misuse of genetic information.”
Among those who disagree with that assessment, however, is a usual Chamber of Commerce ally, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Gregg, who helped steer a genetic discrimination bill through the Senate by a vote of 95-0 last October, urged the House to act. He noted in a written statement that his committee “heard from a broad range of civil rights, employment and insurance experts, the overwhelming majority of whom agree that there are gaps in current law with respect to genetic information.”
House action this year, however, remains unlikely. “I think we’re too far downstream this year to get anything,” subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson, R-Texas, told reporters after the hearing. “It’s too political,” Johnson said.
MeSH Headings:Behavioral Sciences: Behavioral Disciplines and Activities: Economics: Health Care Economics and Organizations: Employment: Financing, Organized: Insurance: Insurance, Health: Social Control Policies: Population Characteristics: Public Policy: Social Control, Formal: Social Sciences: Socioeconomic Factors: Sociology: Anthropology, Education, Sociology and Social Phenomena: Health Care: Psychiatry and PsychologyCopyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
