Life Insurance - Women Furious Over Insurer Gene Testing

Thousands of women with family histories of breast and ovarian cancer could
pay higher insurance premiums or even be denied cover altogether under new
proposals from the insurance industry.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is expected to lodge an
application for permission for its members to ask women whether they have
been tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations.

The faulty BRCA genes are responsible for about five per cent of the 41,700
new cases of breast cancer and 10 per cent of ovarian cancers diagnosed in
Britain each year.

If the insurers are granted permission by the Genetics and Insurance
Committee (the organisation that advises the Government on the issue), women
who have tested positive could be forced to pay higher premiums. Some
companies may even refuse high value life or critical illness insurance.

A notice published on the GIC’s website said, “The Committee expects that
the Association of British Insurers will submit in late 2006/2007 four
revised and updated applications for the use of adverse results from
predictive genetic tests of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes (breast/ovarian
cancer) in helping to determine insurance premiums for life and critical
illness insurance.”

At present, the only predictive genetic test the committee has allowed
insurance companies to ask about is for Huntington's Disease. This is
because of the lack of environmental influences on its development.

However, across Europe, several countries have banned insurers from using
genetic tests to decide premiums. Also, in 2005, a voluntary agreement to
avoid using such tests by British insurance companies was extended until
2011.

Under this agreement, insurers can ask potential customers only about
genetic testing results for Huntington's Disease. However, they can only ask
for the information for policies that are worth more than £500,000 for life
insurance, more than £300,000 for critical illness and more than £30,000 a
year for payment protection.

But the association's genetics working party has indicated that it would
like to bring about a change seeking permission to ask about two cancer
genes and wants approval by the end of the year.

Approximately one in 850 women in Britain inherits a faulty
BRCA1 gene. Those women will have a 14 to 18 per cent chance of developing
breast cancer at some point in their lives.

Meanwhile insurers are not allowed to ask prospective policyholders if they
have HIV, but they can ask them if they have exposed themselves to the risk
of infection through unsafe sex or sharing needles.

An alliance of 45 leading charities, unions, scientists and lawyers have
called on the Government to ban this genetic discrimination.

A study carried out by the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer found 28 per
cent of women with a family history of breast cancer said the would be
deterred from having a genetic test if insurers had access to the results.

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