Australians with a family history of cancer or illness are avoiding life-saving genetic tests, prompting calls to ban life insurers from discriminating based on DNA.
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Genetic screening can help prevent, diagnose and treat some serious conditions, but a recent report from the University of Monash found Australians are worried about the impact this information can have on life insurance prices.
Companies are only allowed to ask for genetic tests if coverage exceeds $500,000 for death and total permanent disability.
It also applies to trauma and critical illness policies greater than $200,000 and monthly income protection of more than $4000.
But the report found instances of insurance companies asking about genetic testing contrary to those thresholds and flagged concerns about how the agreement was enforced.
On Tuesday, independent MP Kylea Tink and senator David Pocock called on the government to stop life insurers from discriminating based on DNA.
"People are effectively being profiled and treated differently based on their genetic DNA data," Ms Tink told reporters in Canberra.
"We need to call it out for what it is, and that's discrimination."
The Canadian government in 2017 already bans entities, including insurance companies, from using and collecting genetic results to discriminate.
Without these kinds of laws, Australian Medical Association president Steve Robson said Australians were forgoing critical procedures.
"It is overwhelming to me that we're in a situation where people - acting through fear of financial penalty - might forsake testing that could save their lives or save the lives of their children and other realities," he said.
"This has to change."
Jane Tiller, lead author on the Monash report, said a ban on legal discrimination would be the first step towards improvement.
However, "it would be nice" to have community-rated life insurance instead of risk-rated services in order to prevent companies from charging different premiums based on gender, religion, family history or a number of other factors, Dr Tiller said.
"The reason we're trying to protect genetic results is because it's a decision that people make ... but they don't decide whether to have a family history or not," she said.
"We want to give people the confidence to have a genetic test when they need to have it, even if other things might happen in the background."
Australian Associated Press
