3 - Opportunities for insurers to use genetic information

Summary

Background: duty of disclosure and balance of information

In the draft proposal for the current Swedish Insurance Contracts Act the section concerning the policy-holder's duty of disclosure begins as follows.

When an insurance contract is concluded it is important that the insurer receives precise information about the circumstances that are of relevance to an actuarial assessment of the nature and scope of risks for which the insurance policy intends to provide protection. This information is necessary first and foremost in order to decide whether or not insurance protection can be provided at all. Without detailed information about specific circumstances it is, as a rule, impossible to calculate the fee that will have to be paid in the form of the premium to the insurer, or to determine the terms that shall apply to the insurance policy in general. The most obvious course in this respect is to adhere to the information provided by the applicant, who must be generally assumed to be able to gather information easily about the existing factual circumstances.

(SOU 1925:21, p. 68, authors' translation)

The quotation expresses an internationally widely accepted view that in connection with any application for insurance the insurer has to decide, taking into consideration the risk in question, whether that risk is insurable at all, and if so, the premium that will be required for the desired insurance cover.