Rape is not a Preexisting Condition

by Matt Kelley · 2009-10-25 11:51:00 UTC
Topics:

We need health care reform in this country for so many reasons, one of which is to ensure that victims of crime get the treatment they need.

The Huffington Post Investigative Fund reported horrifying tales of several women who were denied health insurance because they had received treatment after being the victims of sexual assault. I read this piece right after a great post by change.org Women's Rights blogger Jen Nedeau explaining how just being a woman can be considered a pre-existing condition and detailing instances of discrimination against women by insurers.

Both posts managed to make me angry, and both should serve as reminders of why the fight for health care reform needs our support. No one should be denied coverage, because of their gender or any other reason. Denying a person healthcare because he or she received treatment following a sexual assault is terrible and it's wrong.

The HuffPo story tells the story of a woman who was given preventative HIV medication after she believed she had been drugged and sexually assaulted. Insurers then refused to sell her a policy because they didn't want to take the chance that she had AIDS. Another woman was treated for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after a sexual assault, and then denied coverage because of the history of treatment. These stories aren't anomalies, and it's a disgrace.

Providing services to the victims of violent crimes is critical for this country's criminal justice system to work and to improve. It's just another reason we need to fix healthcare in the U.S.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Arizona Seeks to Privatize its Prisons
NEXT STORY:
DJJ Won't Let Youth Into Meeting about Prison Conditions

COMMENTS (3)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.