Really Sick: If Your Partner Beats You, Insurance Companies Don't Have to Give You Coverage

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Really Sick: If Your Partner Beats You, Insurance Companies Don't Have to Give You Coverage

By Jenny Gold, Kaiser Health News. Posted October 13, 2009.

Domestic abuse victims are twice-abused when insurance companies refuse them coverage.



In 2006, attorney Jody Neal-Post tried to get health insurance but was rejected because of treatment -- counseling and Valium -- she received following a domestic-abuse incident. She says the insurer told her that her medical history made her a high risk, more likely to end up in the emergency room or require additional care.

Four years earlier, Neal-Post says, she had been assaulted by her ex-husband in her home in Albuquerque, N.M. According to police records, both she and her ex-spouse were charged in the incident. The charges were later dropped.

She wasn't prepared for the blow from the insurer. "I was just flabbergasted," says Neal-Post, a 52-year-old attorney. During the altercation with her ex-husband, "I was beaten and choked in my living room," she says. "I'm trying to keep my family together and get medical care. And then you make it through, with everyone back on track, and years later, when it's no longer part of your daily life to remember that and you're feeling good, it's back again."

Advocates say it's not uncommon for people who have been abused to be denied insurance on the individual market. While the majority of states have barred insurance companies from using abuse as grounds for denying coverage, eight states and the District of Columbia don't prohibit denying coverage for that reason. And even when states do have a law, it doesn't necessarily prevent carriers from initially rejecting applicants who are victims of violence. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/politics/143142/really_sick%3A_if_your_partner_beats_you%2C_insurance_companies_don%27t_have_to_give_you_coverage

[SharonAnn]

1. So, if some partner beat you sometime in the past, you're uninsurable?

WTF?

So women shouldn't report domestic abuse if they ever want to have health insurance?

[winyanstaz]

2. so then the insurance companies should be forced to repay all the money...

they have taken in the past from people they deny coverage to.