Is Rape A Pre-existing Condition?
Charming, if true. I’m so glad we have Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln working tirelessly on the Hill to protect and preserve the insurance companies and their profits.
Christina Turner feared that she might have been sexually assaulted after two men slipped her a knockout drug. She thought she was taking proper precautions when her doctor prescribed a month’s worth of anti-AIDS medicine.
Only later did she learn that she had made herself all but uninsurable.
Turner had let the men buy her drinks at a bar in Fort Lauderdale. The next thing she knew, she said, she was lying on a roadside with cuts and bruises that indicated she had been raped. She never developed an HIV infection. But months later, when she lost her health insurance and sought new coverage, she ran into a problem.
Turner, 45, who used to be a health insurance underwriter herself, said the insurance companies examined her health records. Even after she explained the assault, the insurers would not sell her a policy because the HIV medication raised too many health questions. They told her they might reconsider in three or more years if she could prove that she was still AIDS-free.
I will say that I have some concerns whether this is true, the source being the Huffington Post and all. On the other hand, it’s certainly within the realm of possibility and fits the pattern of behavior long exhibited by the insurance companies, so I’m inclined to grant it some credibility unless or until it is debunked.
As health insurance reform nears passage, it’s stories like this that remind us why we need to hold fast and get the job done. These b**tards have brought it upon themselves with their despicable practices.
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
My friend sent me a link to the Huffington Post article the other day, and man, it turned my stomach. This is evidence that we not only need health care reform, but that we need to reform our rape-culture. Money should not be an impetus to further victimize victims. Essentially, policies that make it harder for survivors of violence to come forward are policies that indirectly condone rape.
~caroline