D N A and insurance companies.

[Udayana]

Here's the problem.
...
At some level of knowledge, insurance stops being insurance and starts being a savings plan. Unfortunately, because of the high costs it would be expected to cover, the payments would be too much for most people.
We live in a country where the HMRC lost a CD-ROM with everybody's child benefit details on it and a country in which the Home Secretary is telling us we don't really want end to end encryption. I wouldn't trust the government with my DNA. The only people I would trust less than the government with my DNA is for profit corporations, like insurance companies.

Indeed, but neither government nor insurance work if the organisations providing them cannot be trusted. That is why these issues need to be thought through and rules and checks put in place.

[jeremyp]

Indeed, but neither government nor insurance work if the organisations providing them cannot be trusted. That is why these issues need to be thought through and rules and checks put in place.

If we are talking about health insurance, the only real option is to pay for healthcare out of taxation. No insurance scheme can fulfil the twin objectives of making a profit for the company and making healthcare affordable for everybody.

[Udayana]

The areas directly affected are life, critical illness and health.

Given the NHS, our system pays for health care from taxation. However, if everyone has information about their long term health risks easily assessed, I can't see that people will be happy to pay for others that make no provision for their expected needs or make lifestyle choices that ignore their genetic susceptibilities to certain consequences.