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Speaker 1: Now here's a question for you. Should insurance companies have

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Speaker 1: access to your genetic data. There is a call for

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Speaker 1: the government to ban insurance companies from what's called genetic discrimination. Now,

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Speaker 1: that is when they ask you for your gene testing,

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Speaker 1: and if your gene testing shows that you're at higher

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Speaker 1: risk for a type of disease, then the insurance company

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Speaker 1: makes you pay more for it. Now, Jodybu's hair is

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Speaker 1: a part of the Familial Breast and Ovarian Cancer Trust. Hey, Jody,

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Speaker 1: hi hitter, you got gene test today?

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Speaker 2: Certainly it did, and it showed what showed that was

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Speaker 2: positive for the Bracker two Brca two gene mutation, this

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Speaker 2: which is an extremely high risk for breast and ovarian cancer.

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Speaker 1: Right, and so as a result, did you have your

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Speaker 1: breasts taken off?

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Speaker 2: I did. I had a double mistectomy at the age

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Speaker 2: of forty and reconstruction and then I also had my

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Speaker 2: ovaries and fillopian tubes taken right as well.

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Speaker 1: How much does that drop your risk of cancer by.

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Speaker 2: It dropped it from around at that time upwuts to

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Speaker 2: eighty five percent. Although I was told at the age

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Speaker 2: of forty that it was not if I was going

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Speaker 2: to get breast cancer. It was when and it was

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Speaker 2: probably going to be in the next year, and it

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Speaker 2: dropped it down to about one percent because I still

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Speaker 2: have around one percent of breast tissue left.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so how come the insurance company is making you

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Speaker 1: pay more for your premiums than if you're at a

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Speaker 1: lower risk than most women.

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Speaker 2: I think it's just one of the challenges of everyone

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Speaker 2: grappling with how genetics and predictive testing works. I mean, obviously,

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Speaker 2: we still have family history, and I think that's fair

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Speaker 2: enough to continue to look at family history. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: in terms of I've asked for a review of the

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Speaker 2: loading on insurance because yeah, I don't have that risk anymore.

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Speaker 2: I don't have any breast tissue. So yeah, it's pretty

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Speaker 2: hard to argue that I have the same risk as

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Speaker 2: the rest of the population because the rest of the

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Speaker 2: population is ten percent and much none.

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Speaker 1: I don't get it, Jody. Are they just not thinking

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Speaker 1: this through or is there something that they at the

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Speaker 1: insurance company knows that you don't know.

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Speaker 2: I don't think it's quite like that. I just think

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Speaker 2: it's part of that challenge of keeping up with the

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Speaker 2: changes and technology, the changes and what's happening around testing.

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Speaker 2: I think it's something for you know, actually and underwriters

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Speaker 2: to grapple with, and I think it also becomes incumbent

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Speaker 2: on us to challenge and find out about the loadings

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Speaker 2: as well. You know, it's a similar My daughters have

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Speaker 2: seventy five percent loading on their life insurance and they

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Speaker 2: haven't been tested.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So are you better off then not

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Speaker 1: actually doing the test in the first place and just

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Speaker 1: just taking your chances?

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Speaker 2: Definitely not, I think, And that's you know, one of

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Speaker 2: the reasons that Agenda is doing what we're doing to

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Speaker 2: try and advocates for the total band because genetic tests

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Speaker 2: and say lives. I mean, if I hadn't done that test,

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Speaker 2: there's a high chance now at the age of fifty

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Speaker 2: two that I'd be dead because most of the people

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Speaker 2: in my family who got breast cancer died before the

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Speaker 2: age of fifty. And so yeah, anything that encourages people

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Speaker 2: to get testing is really important because it literally saves

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Speaker 2: lives and ultimately saves money down the track. It's a

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Speaker 2: lot cheaper to funder prophilectic surgery or screening than it

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Speaker 2: is too gunned ten years of cancer treatment, which is

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Speaker 2: what my sister went through.

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Speaker 1: Jody, Hey, thanks very much. Really appreciate a beast of

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Speaker 1: luck with this campaign. Excuse me. Jody Bue's hair part

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Speaker 1: of the Familial Breast and Ovarian Cancer Trust. For more

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Speaker 1: from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live to news talks.

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