Insurance Companies Define DV as a “Pre-existing Condition” in Order to Deny Coverage
Sep 13th, 2009 by admin
Got this in email today from a friend of mine:
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It’s hard to lower my opinion of the practice of denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, but this bit of news managed it. It’s from a press release on the Service Employees International Union website, with links to the supporting documents. Domestic violence is considered “a pre-existing condition” and a basis for denial of care. Makes me want to weep.
“But, in DC and nine other states, including Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming, insurance companies have gone too far, claiming that “domestic violence victim” is also a pre-existing condition.
Words cannot describe the sheer inhumanity of this claim. It serves as yet further proof that our insurance system is broken, destroyed by the profit-mongering of the very companies who’s sole purpose should be to provide Americans with access to care when they need it most. In 1994, an informal survey conducted by the Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee revealed that 8 of the 16 largest insurers in the country used domestic violence as a factor when decided whether to extend coverage and how much to charge if coverage was extended”.
SOURCE:
http://www.seiu.org/2009/09/
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My God this is awful. Unbelievable, in fact. As a person who grew up around DV it’s DESPICABLE. DV as a pre-existing condition? It’s actually a worldwide epidemic, but since women still generally aren’t considered human, only
property, it’s never considered as such. So while they’re grossly minimizing the problem, they’re simultaneously using it as an horribly cruel and inhumane excuse to deny coverage on the basis of its existence.
This just underscores the extent to which for-profit insurance companies are psychopathic entities. Conscienceless.