Assessing Willingness to Pay for Genetic Testing Among Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Data from the Omnibus Survey 2022

TL;DR

This study explores how willing US adults are to pay for genetic testing, finding that insurance type doesn't strongly influence willingness to pay.

Contribution

The study adds new insights into how individuals value genomic screening tests and highlights factors like trust and family history that influence willingness to pay.

Findings

Over 70% of participants expressed willingness to pay for genetic testing.

Insurance type was not significantly associated with willingness to pay for genetic testing.

Lower trust and absence of family cancer history were linked to lower willingness to pay.

Abstract

Background: Population genetic screening (PGS) serves an essential role in identifying individuals at higher risk for hereditary cancer and cardiovascular disease. Nevertheless, the current lack of insurance coverage for screening costs might pose a barrier to its adoption. Health systems might contemplate covering these test expenses, but individuals covered by Medicaid and Medicare may not qualify for cost-free screening due to constraints related to the Beneficiary Inducement Statute. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was administered to 602 US adults in January 2023. Andersen’s model guided variable selection. An ordered probit model was deployed to explore the association between insurance type and willingness to pay (WTP) for PGS, controlling for demographic and healthcare characteristics. Results: Among the 602 respondents, 524 (87%) were included in our analysis. Over 70% (n = 373) of participants expressed WTP for genetic testing. A similar proportion of respondents with Medicare and Medicaid expressed WTP for screening (68%, and 70%, respectively). Insurance type was not significantly associated with WTP for genetic testing. Notably, lower trust levels and absence of family cancer history were associated with a lower probability of expressing high WTP compared to the reference categories (high levels of trust and having a family cancer history). Conclusions: WTP for genetic testing was not significantly associated with insurance type. Almost 30% of our sample were unwilling to pay for PGS, suggesting variability in WTP for PGS and adding to the limited literature on how individuals value genomic screening tests.

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