Bush signs bar to genetic discrimination

WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush Wednesday signed a bill barring employers and insurers from discriminating against people genetically predisposed to disease.

Surrounded by congressional members, Bush signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, "a piece of legislation which prohibits health insurers and employers from discriminating on the basis of genetic information," he said.

"In other words, it protects our citizens from having genetic information misused," he said, "and this bill does so without undermining the basic premise of the insurance industry."

Under provisions of the law, employers are barred from basing personnel decisions on genetic risk or predisposition to disease, and health insurers aren't permitted to deny coverage based on genetic information.

Bush thanked members of Congress for working on the legislation, singling out Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who left a Boston hospital where he was hospitalized after having seizures during the weekend. Doctors later determined Kennedy has brain cancer.

"All of us are so pleased that Senator Kennedy has gone home," Bush said, "and our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family."

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