S 3179Insurance

Insurance - Life Insurance Policies and Reserves

This bill stops life, disability, and long-term care insurers from denying coverage or changing rates based on genetic tests.

Held for study

Population
Affected

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Introduced Apr 3, 2026Committee Senate Commerce

Plain-English Summary

This bill prohibits life, disability, and long-term care insurance companies from using a person's genetic testing information to cancel, limit, or deny coverage. It also stops these insurers from charging different premium rates based on genetic information, unless the person has actually been diagnosed with or shows physical signs of a disease. Insurers are not allowed to ask for genetic test results or use a person's decision to get genetic testing against them. However, insurance companies can still review medical records, ask about family health history, and consider actual disease diagnoses.

For younger readers

Sometimes doctors test a person's DNA (the instructions inside our bodies) to see if they might get sick in the future. This is called a genetic test. This bill makes a rule for companies that sell life and disability insurance. It says these companies cannot refuse to sell insurance to someone or charge them more money just because of what their genetic test shows. The companies are also not allowed to ask for these test results. They can still ask about illnesses you already have or sicknesses that run in your family, though.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups

Life insurersDisability insurersLong-term care insurersIndividuals seeking genetic testingIndividuals with genetic disease predispositions

Impacted communities

All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

None Likely. The bill regulates commercial insurance practices, which is a well-established power of state government. It does not infringe upon free speech, due process, or authorize unreasonable searches and seizures.

Estimated cost

None

Estimated revenue

None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints

For Progressives

Protects individuals from genetic discrimination, ensuring that people with genetic predispositions to illnesses are not unfairly denied access to essential life, disability, and long-term care insurance.
Encourages people to seek preventative healthcare and genetic testing without the fear of losing insurance coverage, which promotes better overall community health and well-being.
Reduces the power of large insurance corporations to exploit deeply personal biological data for profit, advancing systemic reform in the insurance industry.
Continues to allow insurers to use family health history as a basis for coverage decisions, which may still lead to indirect discrimination against individuals with inherited conditions.
Does not completely overhaul the private insurance system or provide public insurance options, leaving individuals reliant on for-profit companies for life and disability coverage.
Permits insurers to deny or limit coverage as soon as a disease physically manifests or is clinically diagnosed, failing to protect those who are already sick and most in need of a generous social safety net.

For Conservatives

Protects individual privacy and personal freedom by ensuring that private citizens' deeply personal genetic data cannot be demanded or leveraged by third-party corporations.
Maintains the ability for insurance companies to accurately assess risk based on actual clinical diagnoses and family health history, preserving key elements of the free market insurance model.
Encourages individuals to take personal responsibility for their health by removing the fear of testing, allowing them to independently manage potential future health issues without relying on government assistance.
Imposes new government regulations and mandates on private insurance companies, restricting their corporate freedom to assess risk and set premiums as they see fit.
May lead to adverse selection, where individuals who know they have genetic risks purchase more insurance, potentially forcing insurers to raise premium costs for all consumers to cover the difference.
Interferes with the free market by legally blinding life, disability, and long-term care insurers to relevant actuarial data that could help them price their products accurately.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 46 additions

SECTION 1. Legislative findings. The Legislature hereby finds that:

(1) Recent advances in genetic science have led to improvements in the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of a significant number of human diseases;

(2) Genetic testing can help individuals take steps to avoid disease entirely or identify disease earlier, maximizing an individual's health and lifespan and reducing health care costs for patients, families, and communities in the long term;

(3) Concerns about ability to access insurance create a disincentive from seeking genetic testing for some individuals, preventing the full realization of opportunity for genetic testing;

(4) The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, 29 U.S.C. 1182, prohibits genetic information from being used as a condition of eligibility, to set premium rates, or impose preexisting condition exclusions for health insurance;

(5) The intent of section 2 of this act is to reduce barriers to the benefits of genetic testing by protecting genetic information from being used to impact access to life insurance, group disability insurance, or long-term care insurance coverage.

SECTION 2. Chapter 27-4 of the General Laws entitled "Life Insurance Policies and Reserves" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following section: 27-4-4.1. Use of genetic testing information prohibited.

(a) In the absence of clinical diagnosis of a condition, or manifestation of a disease, life insurers, disability insurers, and long-term care insurers shall not:

(1) Cancel, limit, or deny coverage, or establish differentials in premium rates based on genetic information collected, used, or stored for healthcare treatment; or

(2) Require or solicit genetic information, use genetic test results, or consider an individual's decision or action relating to genetic testing in any manner or for any purpose related to life insurance, disability insurance, or long-term care insurance.

(b) For purposes of this section, the term “manifestation of a disease” means the outward signs, symptoms, or physical evidence that a disease is present.

(1) Prevent life insurers, disability insurers, and long-term care insurers from reviewing an individual's medical record as part of an application;

(2) Prohibit requiring an applicant for insurance coverage to answer questions regarding family health history; or

(3) Prohibit a life insurer, disability insurer, or long-term care insurer from considering a clinical diagnosis or manifestation of a disease included in an individual's medical record for insurance purposes.

(d) For the purposes of this section:

(1) "Genetic information" has the same meaning as defined in § 27-18-52.1(c); and

(2) "Genetic test" has the same meaning as defined in section § 27-18-52(c).

SECTION 3. Chapter 27-34.2 of the General Laws entitled "Long-Term Care Insurance" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following section: 27-34.2-5.1. Use of genetic testing information prohibited.

(a) In the absence of clinical diagnosis of a condition, or manifestation of a disease, life insurers, disability insurers providing disability income protection coverage, and long-term care insurers shall not:

(1) Cancel, limit, or deny coverage, or establish differentials in premium rates based on genetic information collected, used, or stored for healthcare treatment; or

(b) For purposes of this section, the term “manifestation of a disease” means the outward signs, symptoms, or physical evidence that a disease is present.

(1) Prevent life insurers, disability insurers providing disability income protection coverage, and long-term care insurers from reviewing an individual's medical record as part of an application;

(2) Prohibit requiring an applicant for insurance coverage to answer questions regarding family health history; or

(3) Prohibit a life insurer, disability insurer providing disability income protection coverage, or long-term care insurer from considering a clinical diagnosis or manifestation of a disease included in an individual's medical record for insurance purposes.

(d) For the purposes of this section:

(1) "Disability income protection coverage" means a policy with benefits limited to income protection or the provision of income when an insured is unable to work due to injury or illness;

(2) "Genetic information" has the same meaning as defined in § 27-18-52.1(c); and

(3) "Genetic test" has the same meaning as defined in section § 27-18-52(c).

SECTION 4. The title of Chapter 27-34.2 of the General Laws entitled "Long-Term Care Insurance" is hereby amended to read as follows:

SECTION 5. This act shall take effect upon passage.