Making US workers pass genetic test data to employers is wrong

A proposed law effectively allowing US employers to require workers to take DNA tests and hand over the results is misguided

Letting companies require workers to have genetic tests and disclose the results sounds practically dystopian. But that’s the effect of a new congressional bill in the US.

Employees can refuse to comply, but risk being penalised by having to fork out thousands of dollars in extra health insurance payments – the threat of which might be enough to coerce them into going along with it.

This inflammatory proposal has been backed by Republican members of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce.

With US employers funding a large chunk of employees’ health insurance, they may, understandably, want to rule out staff having certain health risks, which would in turn keep premiums down. Sure, genetic tests can quantify some of those risks. But the bill blows a huge hole in the principle that genetic testing should be voluntary and directly undermines the US Genetic Information and Non-Discrimination Act (GINA).

What’s more, many of the risk-reducing options...