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March 23rd, 2017 
Awake Goy What’s protecting us from a future where we have to share our genetic information with our job? Not much, at least legally. A House committee has approved HR 1313, a bill that would let companies make employees get genetic testing and share that information with their employer — or pay thousands of dollars as a penalty.
Right now, this isn’t allowed because of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA). The new bill — sponsored by Virginia Foxx, a Republican congresswoman from North Carolina — claims that GINA shouldn’t apply when genetic tests are part of “workplace wellness” programs.
It’s meant to make wellness programs stronger. Employees who participate usually go through some medical screenings, take a bunch of health questionnaires, and are sometimes offered incentives like cheap gym memberships. The idea is that participating will make employees healthier, which helps the employer save on health insurance costs. That said, studies have shown that these programs usually don’t work anyway.
Worse, they’re not exactly voluntary: under the Affordable Care Act, employers can charge employees 30 to 50 percent more for health insurance if they don’t participate. The new bill wouldn’t technically force someone to undergo genetic screening, but being charged extra for choosing privacy is coercive. Finally, the way that wellness programs are run makes genetic privacy even more tenuous. Big companies often hire third parties to run these programs, which would potentially give them access to see these employee results, further violating privacy.
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