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Advocates Want GINA to Extend to Life
Millennials Disrupting Healthcare?
Since 2012, the California Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act—CalGINA—has prohibited genetic discrimination in employment, housing, mortgage lending, education and public accommodations. CalGINA provides broader protections for employees than does the federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (“GINA”) of 2008, which is limited to health insurance and employment discrimination coverage. Still, genetic testing advocates are pushing for discrimination protections to be extended to life and long-term care insurance. Right now there’s no law that prohibits insurers from asking potential customers about results from services such as 23andme or rating based on said results. Experts say it’s a long shot that GINA will be extended to life and LTC any time soon. Stay tuned.
Transamerica Center for Health Studies (TCHS) released a new report titled Millennials: An Emerging Generation Disrupting Healthcare. The research concludes that millennials are far more aware of health policy than previous generations and they access care differently. Key findings include: Many millennials are unhappy with the quality of their healthcare and less reliant on healthcare experts. Twentyone percent say they are “not at all” or “not very satisfied” with the quality of healthcare to which they have access —a dissatisfaction that has increased since 2016. Millennials reported visiting their doctor’s office less often, due to the dissatisfaction, coupled with limited finances (31 percent with no visits vs. 27 percent of Gen X and 19 percent of Boomers) often than older generations from 2015-2018. Millennials are more likely to visit a mental health professional, however. More than older generations, in the past twelve months millennials are more likely to have one or more mental health visits (20 percent vs. 11 percent of Gen X and 7 percent of Boomers). Millennials are more likely to save for healthcare expenses and more aware of potential changes to health policy. Thirty percent say they are extremely or very aware of healthcare policy changes (20 percent of Gen X and 20 percent of Boomers), of which most (57 percent) are extremely or very concerned about these policy changes.
JULY 2019
- CalBrokerMag.com -
CALIFORNIA BROKER | 11