The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act -- A Half-Step toward Risk Sharing

doi:10.1056/NEJMp0804352

Volume 359:335-337		July 24, 2008		Number 4

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act — A Half-Step toward Risk Sharing

Russell Korobkin, J.D., and Rahul Rajkumar, M.D., J.D.

Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Consider three Americans — one with an increased geneticrisk for colon cancer, one with a family history of colon cancer,and one with a colonoscopic finding of several large adenomatouspolyps. Under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act(GINA), which was recently signed into law by President GeorgeW. Bush, health insurance companies may not refuse to coverand may not raise premiums for the first two people, whose geneticinformation or family history puts them at higher risk for coloncancer.¹ Insurers could, however, refuse to sell the third personan individual policy or could quadruple his or her . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Mr. Korobkin is a professor at the UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Center for Society and Genetics, Los Angeles. Dr. Rajkumar is a medical resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston.

A video interview with Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, about GINA is available at www.nejm.org.