Yes this would be accurate. Keep in mind, with cancer at least, there are only 10% of cancers diagnosed that we can prove to be hereditary. That means about 90% of our patients are negative or are just found to carry a Variant of Uncertain Significance (VUS). 60% of cancer are thought to be sporadic, which leaves about 30% that are thought to be Familial. Familial cancer is a grey area where we see a family history of cancer that meets criteria but we test someone with cancer and they are negative. In those cases its either a gene that we are not advanced enough to find yet, or the whole family was exposed to something together (sporadic). There are states like Florida that are trying to get the law GINA to cover life insurance as one protected by the genetic information nondiscrimination act, since most people who test are trying to lower their risk of having these disorders and lower the risk of having children with them as well, but not all states are doing this. The three policies not protected by GINA are life insurance (unless it is state protected like Florida is doing), disability insurance, and long term care insurance. Those are all three policies you should have in place before you test. Especially if there is a known mutation in your family! 🙂 hope I helped some! I do this for a living! 😉

Yes – everyone should get life insurance first. That isn’t just for genetic screening, but any type of major testing. For example, my husband is a living kidney donor. Prior to beginning that screening, the hospital insisted on life insurance policies. Nothing would have been covered had something happened during the surgery, but if they had uncovered something during the screenings, he wouldn’t have been able to get life insurance later. Even basic genetic screening has the potential to uncover information that an insurance company can use to make you ineligible.