With a blood test, expectant mothers can check with certainty whether their offspring has Down’s syndrome or another trisomy before the birth. The test is to be partly paid for by the health insurance companies in the future. But disability associations, churches and doctors are warning of the regulation that the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) had already decided in 2019.
In an open letter calls on a broad alliance of critics to the members of the Bundestag to deal with the issue again. It is to be feared that the examination under the envisaged framework conditions “will be applied so frequently that it is in fact equivalent to a serial examination,” the letter of March 4, 2021 said.
Because a blood sample from the mother is sufficient for the test, it is referred to as a non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT). This has been available to women since 2012. However, interested parties usually have to pay for it themselves. During the test, a blood sample from the expectant mother is examined for certain genetic defects in the fetus, such as trisomy 21, in which chromosome 21 is present in triplicate and which is associated with different physical and mental abnormalities. It can also be tested for trisomy 13 and trisomy 18. Some providers can also check for various other very rare chromosomal disorders such as trisomy 9, Jacobsen syndrome or Turner syndrome.
If the test result is negative, there is a high probability that the unborn child has trisomy 21. If, on the other hand, the result is conspicuous, another procedure must follow in order to make a reliable diagnosis – such as an amniotic fluid test, which is associated with a low risk of miscarriage.
Safer and gentler than other methods
The G-BA, a body that brings doctors, health insurance companies and clinics together, already decided in September 2019 that the NIPT should become a cash benefit. Reasons for this: The test yields false-positive results less often than the voluntary first trimester screening and thus avoids unnecessary worries. It is also more gentle than previous invasive procedures, such as the amniotic fluid test that has been used for 30 years and is already covered by the health insurance.
However, there are still pending coordination steps: The brochure has to be approved, which will later inform the statutory health insurance patients about the test. It should be decided in the summer. The Ministry of Health then has to check for formal errors. Only when it is published in the Federal Gazette does the NIPT actually become a cash benefit.
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