Domestic Abuse Victims Struggle with Another Blow: Difficulty Getting Health Insurance

[ccharles000]

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.

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2009/October/07/Domestic-Abuse.aspx

[CoffeeCat]

1. This is so pitiful...

From an actuarial standpoint--the insurance companies are correct--people who have been abused
are more likely to be abused in the future--and probably end up injured and in the ER.

However--the fact that the insurance companies do this to people, is so sickening.

I mean, where does it end? What about adults who were abused as children? If insurance
companies find out about that, will they be denied insurance. Child-abuse victims are
more likely to grow up with a host of issues--and are more likely to end up in abusive
relationships. So, where does this kind of thinking end? Where are the limits?

They could start discriminating against their presuppositions about poor people or
people who don't have college degrees.

I've seen a therapist...insurance companies don't have any way to access those records, do they?

[mzmolly]

2. I love that you advocate so much

for women ccharles000. :pals:

[ccharles000]

3. thank you

:hug:

[mzmolly]

4. Thank YOU!

There need to be more like you ccharles000. :)

[Forkboy]

5. An aggravated K&R