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New Bill Would Allow Employers To Demand Genetic Testing From Workers (businessinsider.com)

capedgirardeau quotes a report from Business Insider: A little-noticed bill moving through the U.S. Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and other health information. Giving employers such power is now prohibited by U.S. law, including the 2008 genetic privacy and nondiscrimination law known as GINA. The new bill gets around that landmark law by stating explicitly that GINA and other protections do not apply when genetic tests are part of a "workplace wellness" program. The bill, HR 1313, was approved by a House committee on Wednesday, with all 22 Republicans supporting it and all 17 Democrats opposed. The 2008 genetic law prohibits a group health plan -- the kind employers have -- from asking, let alone requiring, someone to undergo a genetic test. It also prohibits that specifically for "underwriting purposes," which is where wellness programs come in. "Underwriting purposes" includes basing insurance deductibles, rebates, rewards, or other financial incentives on completing a health risk assessment or health screenings. In addition, any genetic information can be provided to the employer only in a de-identified, aggregated form, rather than in a way that reveals which individual has which genetic profile. There is a big exception, however: As long as employers make providing genetic information "voluntary," they can ask employees for it. Under the House bill, none of the protections for health and genetic information provided by GINA or the disabilities law would apply to workplace wellness programs as long as they complied with the ACA's very limited requirements for the programs. As a result, employers could demand that employees undergo genetic testing and health screenings.

8 of 397 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yes those emails by jpatters · · Score: 5, Informative

    The emails were a felony only in your imagination. If the Republicans keep pulling shit like this they will become even more irrelevant in reality than you imagine the other party is.

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    "Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
  2. Re:Those emails, though by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Informative

    The committee is not the entire House. If you think all GOP are going to support it you're insane.

    No, the ones who are in vulnerable districts will be given a pass, but only after they know they have enough Republican votes to pass it. This phenomenon even has a name. It's called the "Hastert Rule", proudly named after its inventor, a long-time Republican House leader who was also a pedophile and is currently in prison.

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    You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. Fake news ahoy! by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was wondering about this so I googled it. Dems opposed mandatory wellness back in 2013. tranquilidad is full of it. Got modded up to +5 even.

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    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  4. Re:Gattaca by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pfffffffft, that's NOTHING. You should see the death panels we have up here in socialist Canada. They're literally at the door of the hospital. If you get sent to the waiting room on the right, you're not ever going home. I hear they take you to the "waiting room" where they use a bolt gun to finish you off, divy up your organs and grind up the rest into government issue dog food. I know someone who's cousin's relatives were given an urn full of cigarette ashes and told to kiss off. Don't even get me started about the 98% tax rate on income over $20!

  5. Re:Yes those emails by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    8 years ago, the Democrats held the Presidency, both Houses and 57% of governorships. Yet here we are.

    This is part of the normal political pendulum. People become disillusioned with whatever party is in power because problems aren't being solved. So they vote the other guys in, and then slowly realize that the other party doesn't have any solutions either.

  6. Re:Republican Freedom by OrangeTide · · Score: 5, Informative

    Thank you for voting Democrat in 2008 and 2012 - you helped more than double my insurance costs

    You can blame lobbyists and the Republican filibuster on earlier attempts for single payer. Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was a compromise reached through negotiation with insurance lobbyists. It is modeled on the earlier Massachusetts Accountable Health Care act (Romneycare), and mainly adds requirements for insurance providers to cover preventative care and has provisions to expand Medicare. But the rest of it remain the same, it's an expansion of a system that Massachusetts already has operated successfully.

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    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  7. Re:Yes those emails by rrohbeck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not everybody is as rational as you. If you bought the propaganda hook, line and sinker then you're emotionally invested and the current government can do nothing wrong.

  8. Re:Gattaca by Freischutz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You can't fix social mobility with IQ tests. Hell you can't fix ANYTHING with IQ tests.

    My cousin was sent to a special needs class which in Germany at the time effectively destroyed any hope you had of ever getting into a University. This was done on the basis of an analysis of his grades and an IQ test. He ended up being sent to a vocational school and graduated as a plumber because the specialists in classifying humans by IQ declared that with his limited intelligence a lowly plumber was the most he could ever hope to aspire to. He eventually escaped this system of human quality classification after he graduated by completing a business degree at a private school. He now owns a big plumbing company and by big I mean the kind of company that bids for substantial contracts like doing the plumbing large office buildings and factories. I have seen enough similar examples for me to conclude that IQ tests are at best an extremely inaccurate instrument and at worst completely useless.