Amy Goodman: Domestic Violence: A Pre-Existing Condition?

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/03-2

Published on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by TruthDig.com
Domestic Violence: A Pre-Existing Condition?

by Amy Goodman

snip//

These high-profile cases are sadly symptomatic of a massive problem. The Family Violence Prevention Fund offers this chilling summary of domestic violence in the U.S.: 1 in 4 women report violence at the hands of a current or former spouse or boyfriend at some point in their lives; three women per day are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends; women suffer 2 million injuries from intimate-partner violence each year; and there were 248,300 rapes/sexual assaults in 2007, more than 500 per day, up from 190,600 in 2005.

President Barack Obama has reaffirmed October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and stressed the link between the economy and domestic violence: "In the best of economic times, victims worry about finding a job and housing, and providing for their children; these problems only intensify during periods of financial stress." Sen. Harry Reid said about domestic abuse last week: "It has gotten out of hand. Why? Men don't have jobs. Women don't have jobs either, but women aren't abusive, most of the time. Men, when they're out of work, tend to become abusive. Our domestic crisis shelters in Nevada are jammed. It's the way it is all over the country."

Given the severity of the problem of domestic violence, and its likely exacerbation by the economic crisis, it is hard to believe that so-called health insurance companies actually label a woman's victimization by domestic violence as a "pre-existing condition." The term has long been used by health insurance corporations to deny coverage to applicants or, perhaps worse, to retroactively deny coverage to people who suffered from a condition before they were insured.

At Obama's bipartisan health care summit last week, New York Rep. Louise Slaughter pointed out, "Eight states in this country right now have declared that domestic violence is a pre-existing condition, on the grounds, I assume, that if you've been unlucky enough to get yourself beaten up once, you might go round and do it again."

March 8 is recognized by the United Nations and many countries around the world (but not the U.S.) as International Women's Day. March is Women's History Month. Thousands of events are being held around the world to honor women. Let's start here in the U.S. by making violence against women history.

[Scout]

1. K & R n/t

[Dogtown]

2. K&R n/t

[winyanstaz]

3. K & R....

We must begin to teach the children how wrong it is. We obviously need much more focus on ways to work out disagreements and with stress intervention.
We need a better safe house system and more protection for the one (male or female) being battered along with counseling and intervention for the abuser.