# GINA (Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act 2008)

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/gina/  
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## TL;DR

A 2008 US law that stops health insurers and employers using your genetic test results against you, so a BRCA or Lynch syndrome result cannot raise your premiums or cost you a job; it does not cover life, disability or long-term care insurance.

## Summary

United States, federal statute. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act was signed on 21 May 2008 (Public Law 110-233) after thirteen years of attempts. Title I bars health insurers from using genetic information to set eligibility or premiums or from requiring tests; Title II bars employers with fifteen or more staff from using it in hiring, firing or promotion, enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Primary text: the EEOC statute page and the Congress.gov record of H.R.493.

What it changed for cancer: fear of discrimination was the main reason people declined BRCA testing in the 1990s and 2000s. GINA, together with the Affordable Care Act's ban on pre-existing condition exclusions from 2014, removed the health insurance and employment risk, and uptake of hereditary cancer testing rose. Genetic counsellors still explain the gaps: the Act does not cover life insurance, disability insurance or long-term care insurance, does not apply to the military or to employers with fewer than fifteen employees, and protects information about risk rather than a diagnosis already made.

The arguments: several states (California, Florida, Illinois among others) have legislated to fill the life and disability insurance gap; insurers argue that hidden genetic knowledge creates adverse selection. Elsewhere, the United Kingdom relies on a voluntary code between the government and the insurance industry, and the European Union's GDPR treats genetic data as a special category.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-17
- Also known as: GINA; Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act; genetic discrimination; genetic nondiscrimination
- Tags: law; us

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_Information_Nondiscrimination_Act
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_Information_Nondiscrimination_Act
- EEOC: the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008: https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/genetic-information-nondiscrimination-act-2008
- Congress.gov: H.R.493, GINA (Public Law 110-233): https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-bill/493

## Connected records

- terms: [Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics (2013)](https://onco.cc/terms/myriad-ruling/), [GDPR and health data (Regulation (EU) 2016/679)](https://onco.cc/terms/gdpr/), [Germline BRCA mutation (gBRCA)](https://onco.cc/terms/gbrca-mutation/), [HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)](https://onco.cc/terms/hipaa/), [State biomarker testing coverage laws](https://onco.cc/terms/state-biomarker-testing-laws/), [The Common Rule (45 CFR 46)](https://onco.cc/terms/common-rule/), [UK Data Protection Act 2018 and health data law](https://onco.cc/terms/uk-data-protection-act/)
- technologies: [Germline (hereditary) testing](https://onco.cc/technologies/germline-testing/)
- bottlenecks: [Inherited risk is mostly unidentified](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-hereditary-risk/)

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