23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by heavyset_go on Thursday January 23, 2020 @07:42PM (#22134154)

> Well, I don't think I have any pre-existing conditions and certainly don't do drugs, but I don't know about any unknowns on the health side that could impact my insurance if they were to share it to the company. Forget that.

In the US, only health insurance companies are not allowed to use genetic data to increase premiums or deny coverage, at least for now. I'm not sure what the rules are about using data derived from genetic data, however.

Life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance etc companies are allowed to use genetic data to determine costs for policyholders or to deny coverage[1], however.

That fact alone is the reason I won't hand over my genetic data to a third party.

[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/08/07/6360262...

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by drcode on Thursday January 23, 2020 @08:03PM (#22134311)

The problem is that... people/companies sometimes do things even if they are illegal.

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Re:23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline by heavyset_go on Thursday January 23, 2020 @08:30PM (#22134494)

I agree, this is definitely something to worry about. The reason I brought it up wasn't to dismiss such worries, but to highlight the fact that even if someone isn't worried about the health insurance aspect today, they definitely should worry about how the collection of their genetic data could impact their ability to purchase other types of insurance.

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