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Genetic testing can reveal a lot about a person’s potential for health problems.
Health insurance companies and others want access to that personal information to determine risks, or even possibly deny coverage.
Canada’s federal Privacy Commissioner said in a statement this month that companies should not ask for such information unless they can clearly show that genetics tests are necessary and effective in assessing risk
Patricia Kosseim is Senior General Counsel at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
ListenPeople now undergo genetics testing for a wide variety of reasons, but many also fear submitting to such tests out of concern that results may cause discrimination by employers or insurers.
No laws against genetic discrimination
Last year, the Liberal leader in the Senate introduced legislation, Bill S-201 that would stop insurance companies and others from discriminating against people who are genetically susceptible to some diseases. That bill is still in committee discussion.
Past Conservative and Liberal election platforms pledged to stop discriminatory life insurance practices, while the New Democrats once introduced a private member’s bill in the House of Commons to ban “genetic characteristics” as grounds for discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
However, there are still no laws yet in Canada about genetic discrimination
The Canadian Life and Health Association is a non-profit group representing the insurance industry. It has said it won’t require people to get genetic testing before applying for insurance.
However, the group’s vice president and general counsel, Frank Zinatelli has said that if testing has already been done and results shared with an individual and/or their doctor, then the insurance companies should gain access to that information.
In response to the Privacy Commissioner’s statement Zinatelli is quoted by the Canadian Press saying, “It asserts that genetic-testing information is not necessary for assessing the risk. We believe that it is,”
For it’s part, the Privacy Office commissioned a benchmark actuarial study, and even in terms of the medical context (as opposed to say, genetic tests for anthropological research), the study says the information would not be needed by insurance companies at this time.
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