The much-anticipated benefits of personalized medicine are being lost or diluted for many Americans who fear that genetic information may be used against them to take advantage of its growing availability.

In some instances, doctors say, patients who could make more informed decisions if they knew whether they had inherited an elevated risk of disease like breast and colon cancer refuse to do so because of the economically dire consequences.

The New York Times reports that, ”others enter a kind of genetic underground, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of their own money for DNA tests that an insurer would otherwise cover, so as to avoid scrutiny. Those who find out they are likely or certain to develop a particular genetic condition often beg doctors not to mention it in their records.”

Actually, few health insurance companies discriminate against anyone who takes DNA test that reveal the person is genetically predisposed to certain diseases. But some people don’t want to take any chances of being denied coverage or forced to pay for higher insurance rates.

To read the entire article from the New York Times, link here:

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