A Florida woman, who is a victim of sexual abuse, claims that rape was called a "pre-existing condition" by several health insurance companies, which would have disqualified her for care.
In 2002, Chris Turner, a health insurance agent from Tampa, Florida, was drugged and raped during a business trip. When she conferred with a doctor after her assault, Turner was prescribed preventative anti-HIV drugs, and she later entered counseling to help deal with the residual psychological effects of her rape.
A few months later, when Turner was forced to buy new insurance on the individual market, she suspected, based on her knowledge of the approval process, that she may no longer qualify for coverage. She called a series of insurance underwriters and asked them about a hypothetical client who had been raped, and every insurer she called had the same response: "Nope, we won't take her." Turner's treatment for her rape, it turns out, constituted a pre-existing condition that the companies said would disqualify her from coverage.
Turner spoke about her situation at the launch of the National Women's Law Center's "Being A Woman Is Not A Pre-Existing Condition" campaign yesterday. Amanda Stone recapped her story:
As an insurance agent, Chris knows how the system works: "If you're rejected for coverage once it can put a black spot on your insurance record and keep you from getting health insurance in the future." So, why did the insurance companies she consulted refuse to cover a hypothetical rape survivor? Because the hypothetical rape survivor had sought treatment for her rape! Her use of preventative anti-HIV medication and her attendance in much needed counseling---steps that were necessary to Chris's health and well-being---became obstacles to her future health and well-being, as they were cited for reasons why insurance companies refused to insure her hypothetical applicant. In order to qualify for insurance coverage at all, her hypothetical applicant would have had to have tested negative for HIV for two to three years and have completed counseling for one to two years (depending on the specific insurance company and plan). If Chris, an insurance agent who knows the ins and outs of the insurance market, was unable to obtain health insurance following her assault, what chance do the rest of us have?
Turner says that she went without health care for several years, until she got married and joined her husband's employer-based policy:
As a Florida resident, my only other option was to get insurance coverage in Florida's high risk insurance pool. This coverage would cost more than my rent, so I went without health insurance for about three years. I had to pay for everything on my own--the counseling, the antidepressants, any other health needs that I had. This whole time I was still working in the health insurance field. I sat with clients, explaining how their health policy worked--and the fact that I didn't have coverage myself was like a big, dark secret hanging over me.
I was only able to get health insurance after I married my husband and he eventually got a job that included coverage for spouses. The day that I finally had health insurance again was so fantastic. To know that I could finally get a check-up or a mammogram was a huge relief.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/insurance-companies-rape-_n_328708.html
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