Jut when you think you've heard the last word on the idiocy of leaving our health care in the hands of for-profit insurers:
Rape Victim's Choice: Risk AIDS or Health Insurance?
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.
You can read more details at HuffPo but here's a little more of the flavor:
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.
Is the supposed fear of AIDS the only excuse insurers use to deny coverage to sexual assault victims? Funny you should ask.
Some women have contacted the Investigative Fund to say they were deemed ineligible for health insurance because they had a pre-existing condition as a result of a rape, such as post traumatic stress disorder or a sexually transmitted disease. Other patients and therapists wrote in with allegations that insurers are routinely denying long-term mental health care to women who have been sexually assaulted.
As a Nurse myself, I just have to throw in a bit of the nurse's point of view from the story:
Nurses who deal with sexual assault cases say the industry's policy creates a significant problem for those treating women who have been assaulted. "It's difficult enough to make sure that rape victims take the drugs," said Diana Faugno, a forensic nurse in California and board director of End Violence Against Women International. "What are we supposed to tell women now? Well, I guess you have a choice - you can risk your health insurance or you can risk AIDS. Go ahead and choose."
So, some thoughts to leave you with. Yesterday, we had a rec list diary that reminded us - or should have - that the current versions of health care reform on the table will not fix the issue of denial of care for most Americans. And today we see another reason why leaving profit making insurers at the center of our health care system is truly a form of insanity. Indeed, we all know very well that national single payer is not going to happen this year, but, for the above reasons and many others, what we pass this year will only be the beginning of a process. All the versions of reform currently on the table will restrict access to the "public option" to varying degrees. And that means we will still be seeing too many of our fellow citizens suffering denials of care, loss of coverage just when they need it most, and paying more than they can afford for insurance that does not truly meet the need for real care. This is a long road - and what we pass this year will not be the end of it.
Update: And as a future step on that long road, we really do need to support the Weiner Amendment - see this diary from yesterday - not because we actually expect it to pass, but because it sets the stage for the next fight - the fight for real reform