Health insurance genetic discount

This idea was prompted by the linked article which explains why Americans have been unwilling to change our current healthcare "system" into a universal health insurance like that of most first world nations. The short answer: we are unwilling to subsidize the risk of those other chumps who are no doubt less healthy and less lucky than we are.

If it is an "every man for himself" in the US, I want to do everything I can to keep my own health insurance rates low. No-one complains that nonsmokers pay less for health insurance than smokers, or the thin pay less than the fat. There has been much fear, however, that genetic tests will determine other risk factors for disease and this will be used to hike the insurance rates (or deny insurance) to the genetically cursed.

I propose that this genetic information could be used for insurance purposes if it were cast as a blessing, not a curse. People could optionally take a test for a battery of genetic polymorphisms, looking for variants linked the breast cancer, Alzheimers, and other expensive conditions. They could then turn part or all of the test results in to their insurer. If they have _good_ genes, their rates would fall! Thus they are rewarded for their good genetic inheritance, just as they are already rewarded for not smoking and living in the right zip code. Even the most principled of Americans would jump at the chance to save money.

In this natural extension of the current system, people who did not like their test results would not need to turn them in, and thus the results could not be used against them. In fact, they could turn in the bad results if they wished, and their rates would still not go up. People who object to genetic testing need not participate - and their rates would not go up.