2026 1(50) 25

Conceptual approaches to regulating the use of genetic information for assessing life and health insurance risks

Arych M.,
PhD in Ekonomics, Associate Professor,
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0910-2332
e-mail: mykhailo.arych@gmail.com
National University of Food Technologies, Kiev;
2025/2026 Fellow of the Virtual Ukraine Institute for Advanced Study (VUIAS)

Citation Format
Arych, M. (2026). Conceptual approaches to regulating the use of genetic information for assessing life and health insurance risks. Vіsnyk ekonomіchnoі nauky Ukraіny, 1(50), 217-224. https://doi.org/10.37405/3041-1629.2026.1(50).217-224

Language
 Ukrainian

Resume
The paper examined management methods and regulatory and legal features of determining the conditions for using human genetic data for underwriting purposes in the areas of life and health insurance, and defined and substantiated conceptual approaches to regulating the use of genetic information for assessing life and health insurance risks. It was established that currently one of the main criteria for dividing and classifying these management approaches is the presence of regulatory and legal support for general action to protect against genetic discrimination, which in turn provides for the protection and/or prevention of discrimination of a person based on his or her genetic characteristics and in access to life and health insurance services. In addition, it was determined that important criteria for substantiating conceptual approaches to regulating the use of human genetic information to assess its insurance risks are the social role of insurance, the possibility, feasibility and quality of using genetic research technologies as a new underwriting tool, the risk of genetic discrimination, the possibility of avoiding information asymmetry and preventing adverse selection, etc. It was substantiated that the most appropriate (taking into account current trends in the development of insurance markets) way of dividing approaches to regulation and determining the conditions for using human genetic data for underwriting purposes in the areas of insurance of risks related to life and health is to define such groups for countries in which 1) there is no regulation at all; 2) there is a moratorium (ban) under government supervision over the insurance industry, or 3) sectoral or special legislation on protection against genetic discrimination in insurance; 4) the main and only regulatory instrument is the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine; 5) available “soft” regulatory approaches: optional regulatory regulation, available ethical recommendations, or only a court decision.

Keywords
life insurance, critical illness insurance, health insurance, regulation, genetic discrimination, genetic information, insurance risk.

Referensces

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Full Text (.pdf)

Received: 16.04.2026
Accepted: 12.05.2026
Published: 29.05.2026