- The ARC - California Edition -

Genetic Discrimination

People with mental retardation have long been discriminated against in both insurance and employment.

To a family, it usually shows up first in the insurance arena where a parent learns that their "mentally retarded" child is not eligible for the same medical coverage as others in the family without having to pay a surcharge, and/or perhaps get special permission.

In those olden days, it was quite simple, but now there seems to have emerged a new type of discrimination arising from the increased use of genetic testing.

From past experience, parents or guardians of persons with a disability are quite concerned since these tests appear to them to be solely related to exposing the presence of any abnormal or defective genes - and not treatment. And then what happens?

This new phenomenon within genetic discrimination occurs depending on how the information is used. What if it is used to decide to not insure a family if a single member of that family has a predisposition to develop a disease or genetically related condition? Should the law allow such action?

There is an endless list of discrimination possibilities and already new laws are on the books. But what are these 'protective' laws.

The right column of this page contains the highlights of the current laws in California regarding control of genetic discrimination. These laws are unique to this state.

In addition to the state laws, there currently are federal statutes which do cover portability and continuation of insurance coverage as a person moves between states.