Genetic Testing and Disability Insurance: An Alternative Opinion

As members of the Working Group on Genetic Testing in Disability Insurance, the authors of this alternative opinion describe their areas of disagreement with some of the conclusions in the paper written by Susan M. Wolf and Jeffrey P. Kahn.     

Genetic Testing and the Future of Disability Insurance: Thinking about Discrimination in the Genetic Age

This article considers the future of genetic testing and disiblity insurance, and explores the potential for discrimination when using genetic information.     

Genetic Testing and the Future of Disability Insurance: Ethics, Law & Policy

Predictive genetic testing poses fundamental questions for disability insurance, a crucial resource funding basic needs when disability prevents income from work. This article, from an NIH-funded project, presents the first indepth analysis of the challenging issues: Should disability insurers be permitted to consider genetics and exclude predicted disability? May disabilities with a recognized genetic basis be excluded from coverage as pre-existing conditions? How can we assure that private insurers writing individual and group policies, employers, and public insurers deal competently and appropriately with genetic testing?     

Genetic Screening and Disability Insurance: What Can We Learn From The Health Insurance Experience?

Genetic information may be used by health and disability insurance companies to deny or restrict coverage. How health insurance companies use genetic information, and how public policy has limited that use, can be illustrative for genetics and disability insurance policy.     

浅析我国保险公司上市的收益与风险

分析我国保险上市的可行性,主要分析上市给保险公司带来的增强承保能力、偿付能力、资本运营、改制等方面的收益,以及财务风险、经营与管理风险和系统风险。收益和风险都不是绝对的,保险公司只有充分利用上市带来的机遇,真正从公司的长远发展和上市的最终目标出发,主动转换角色与经营理念,才能规避风险,获得收益。     

Predictive Genetic Testing: Congruence of Disability Insurers' Interests with the Public Interest

This article argues that, under existing jurisprudence, the disability insurance business will be harmed, not benefited, from broad access to the results of genetic testing identifying people with higher than species-typical genetic propensities for illness.     

Workers' Compensation, Social Security Disability, SSI, and Genetic Testing

This article argues that the use of genetic testing to determine eligibility for worker compensation and/or social security disability benefits would seriously undermine the social purposes of the laws.     

欧盟保险法的统一进程

在欧盟,以宪法性法律文件为基础,通过三代保险指令,也包括正在形成的第四代保险指令,欧盟的单一保险市场正在逐步形成.但相对于欧盟的保险监管制度来说,保险合同方面的调和则严重滞后.在这一领域,目前法律的发展仅局限于对保险合同冲突法的调整.这种状况导致了保险服务自由的目标难以实现.为了改变这种局面,欧盟的相关机构进行了有益的探索.其中的关键问题在于,欧盟应为各成员国提供统一的保单持有者的保护标准.顺应这一要求,最好的办法是颁布有关欧盟保险合同的实体法.我国作为世贸组织的一员和保险法尚不完善的国家,对于其中的动态应给予足够的关注.     

Life, Health, and Disability Insurance: Understanding the Relationships

Communitarian values are stronger in health insurance than in life or disability insurance. This correlates with increased tolerance for insurers' use of genetic information in disability insurance underwriting, which, in turn, is relevant to the scope and content of proposals to regulate such use.     

Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income for the Aged, Blind and Disabled; representative payment--SSA. Final rule

These final regulations reorganize and restate in simpler language our regulations on representative payment under titles II, Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI), and XVI, Supplemental Security Income for the Aged, Blind, and Disabled (SSI) of the Social Security Act. These regulations (1) explain representative payment; (2) state when title II and title XVI benefits will be paid to a representative payee rather than directly to the entitled person; (3) indicate the procedure we follow in selecting a representative payee; (4) specify the responsibilities of a representative payee; and (5) clarify our responsibilities to the beneficiary when we make payments to a representative payee on his or her behalf.     

The Purchase of Insurance Across State Lines in the Individual Market

Proposals to allow the purchase of insurance across state lines (PASL) have gained some support in recent years. Health insurers have traditionally been allowed to sell a policy only within the state that approved and regulates that particular policy. PASL would allow insurers to sell a policy approved in one state to people residing in any state. Any federal legislation to enact PASL in an individual insurance market would have to address two main legal considerations: (1) the McCarran-Ferguson Act, which allows the states to retain their regulatory authority over insurance; and (2) a constitutional prohibition against the commandeering of state officials by the federal government. This paper outlines these obstacles and potential solutions, and concludes that as long as the legislation is thoughtfully drafted, there is no significant legal or constitutional barrier to enacting PASL. Additionally, the concepts discussed here may be relevant to any federal health reform legislation involving regulation of health insurance or the use of state officials.     

基因检测技术与基因隐私权法律保护

当前,基因检测引发的相关法律和道德问题备受争议。基因隐私权有别于一般隐私权,其有特定的内容、性质及特征,在犯罪DNA库建立、亲子鉴定、雇佣及保险过程中进行基因检测应严格遵循知情同意、知情选择及信息安全等原则,此外也要兼顾公众知情权。应当建立符合中国国情和技术发展的保护机制,以实现合理使用遗传信息与保护基因隐私权的利益平衡。     

基因信息在保险核保中的应用及其限度

基因信息可应用于保险核保的理论基础在于保险的风险分类理论与保险法的对价平衡原则。政策、伦理、道德、技术等方面的反对意见并不足以否定基因信息应用于保险核保的正当性,因为商业保险不应承担社会保障职能;基因信息相比一般医疗信息不具有特殊性;保险承保的本来就是具有不确定性的风险,基因检测的准确性也在逐步提高。是故,应当允许基因信息应用于保险核保,但为防止基因信息的滥用,还须通过规范的方式明确基因信息的应用限度:明晰保险人获取基因信息的方式;设定保险人使用基因信息的条件;规定保险人对于依据基因信息作出不利被保险人决定之理由的披露义务;强化基因咨询师的咨询与建议职责;完善对被保险人的救济机制及其具体运作规范。     

Public Protests, Private Lawsuits, and the Market: The Investor Response to the McLibel Case

The tendency of English libel law to protect reputation at the expense of freedom of expression makes the United Kingdom a potentially attractive forum for retaliatory lawsuits against individuals and organizations who lobby or campaign against the interests of large companies. The most prominent recent example of such a lawsuit was the so-called 'McLibel' case, in which McDonald's Corporation sued protesters who had distributed anti-McDonald's leaflets outside some of the company's restaurants. The case is often cited as evidence that the risk of unfavourable publicity generated by retaliatory libel actions is a strong deterrent to using the libel laws to silence public opposition to corporate activities. This article uses a technique widely employed in financial economics research, the 'event study' method, to investigate whether the unanticipated bad publicity attracted by the McLibel case had a negative financial impact on McDonald's, such that future retaliatory lawsuits might be deterred.     

私权视角下的社会保险基金监管

社会保险基金是我国社会保障基金的重要组成部分,建立健全社会保险基金的监管制度是建立和完善我国社会保障体系的重要环节。在社会保险基金监管体制的制度构架中,在探讨如何将公权力(监督权力)进行分配,使社会保险基金的各管理主体各尽其能,相互制约的同时,应当明确社会保险基金中的私有产权性质,解决社会保险基金权利主体缺位问题,从而进一步完善社会保险基金监管制度,切实维护劳动者合法权益。