Which healthcare regulation prohibits discrimination by health insurance companies based on clients' genetics?

• A. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
• B. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
• C. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH)
• D. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Answer: (D)

The main idea here is that broad protections in health insurance come from the ACA, which makes it harder for plans to discriminate based on a person’s health status, including genetic information, when underwriting or setting conditions of coverage. The ACA extends guarantees like not denying coverage for preexisting conditions and limits practices that could lead to higher premiums due to health concerns, which covers genetic risk as part of health status.

HIPAA mainly protects privacy and security of health information, not insurer discrimination in underwriting. OSHA deals with workplace safety. HITECH focuses on health IT and privacy related to electronic records, not insurance underwriting practices.

Note: a separate law, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), specifically prohibits using genetic information for underwriting by health insurers, but it isn’t among the given options.