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Alan L. Engelberg, MD, MPH
St Louis, Mo

JAMA. 1992;267(9):1208.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—The article by the American Medical Association's Council on Ethical and Judical Affairs on genetic testing by employers¹ and the accompanying article by Dr Juengst² raise important issues about the use of medical testing for decisions about employment. It is gratifying to see that both articles stress the value of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) in protecting individuals against adverse employment decisions based on an unwarranted use of and interpretation of medical information.

However, both articles barely make mention of a glaring loophole in the ADA through which the results of genetic testing, or any other medical information unrelated to job assignment, will fall: the ADA does not prohibit insurance companies from denying health insurance coverage to individuals for "preexisting" conditions.³ To underscore that point, the report of the House of Representatives committee that drafted the Act states: "[W]ith respect to group health . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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