Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act held up by Sen. Coburn

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Friday May 11, 2007 · 1:12 PM PDT

2007/05/11 · 13:12

Yes he did it again... this is the same guy who managed to galvanize the bigot vote during the 2004 Oklahoma Senate race, and squeak one by Rep. Brad Carson.

"Opponents of genetic discrimination laws include some insurers and free-market purists, who have suggested that actual incidents of genetic discrimination -- of people being fired because they are thought to carry the gene for Huntington's, for instance -- are few and far between".
http://www.boston.com/...

(yeah... I believe them!)

The bill is currently being held up by Sen. Coburn of Oklahoma supposedly because there's "an exception allowing discrimination based on genetic information from embryos and fetuses"; (since he's pro-life and all that rubs him the wrong way) but his concern was addressed immediately by the Senate Committee... for some reason the hold on this bill remains.
Tom Coburn is of course the same lesbian-hating physician who galvanized the Oklahoma bigot vote in 2004 in order to get elected (not hard to do), and who foams at the mouth every time health-care reform is mentioned. It's sad that he's a doctor; I've never heard Sen. Coburn advocate patient's rights over the interests of the insurance industry.
Sen. Coburn is still holding up this bill ANONYMOUSLY thinking that he can avoid the negative publicity while looking after the Health Insurance Lobby. Thankfully the Boston Globe a week ago and a diligent scientist today on NPR spilled the beans on this. It'd be interesting to see how he will react if he's confronted with this issue!

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