The FDA dealt a blow to 23AndMe Monday morning, ordering the makers of a $99 DNA test to halt marketing of the product. And at least one interest group watched eagerly from the front row: health insurance companies. 23andMe's tests, designed to tell people if they're at risk for certain health conditions, could lead to an increase in care--necessary or not--which insurers could end up covering. Here's a hypothetical. Say 23andMe's results indicate a 30-year-old client has the three most common BRCA1 and 2 gene mutations that 23andMe tests for, suggesting high risk for breast cancer.
