Domestic Violence as a Pre-Existing Condition
Changes That Need to be Made to Health Insurance Practices
Oct 6, 2009
Domestic violence is a serious concern for women. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 85 percent of domestic violence victims are women. In addition, most domestic violence cases are not reported to the police, so women can be continuously victimized by their abusive partners. As a result of the physical harm, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports that domestic violence costs over $5.8 billion each year, “$4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health service.”
A Pre-Existing Condition?
The Huffington Post and the Service Employees International Union report that in the District of Columbia, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming, insurance companies consider domestic violence as a “pre-existing condition,” thus justifying dropping coverage for domestic violence survivors; however, Arkansas recently passed a law preventing discrimination against domestic violence survivors.
The Huffington Post notes in an update to their report that North Carolina's insurance commissioner said that domestic violence would not be considered a pre-existing condition, though ambiguity in the law exists. The Service Employees International Union adds that “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 deciding whether to extend coverage and how much to charge if coverage was extended.”
Changes Being Made
Updates to the report by the Huffington Post notes that many of the states and insurance companies have been working toward to changing domestic violence as a pre-existing condition. However, this change is also being done on a national level as part of health care reform. In 2006, Senator Patty Murray (D. Wash.) introduced an amendment that would ban insurance companies from listing domestic violence as a pre-existing condition. When the amendment was voted on in the Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, it came back as a tie: 10-10; the amendment did not pass.
The good news is that this issue is now being pushed along with the comprehensive health care reform. According to Eli Zupnick, spokesman for Senator Murray, “Senator Murray continues to believe that victims of domestic violence should not be punished for the crimes of their abusers. That is why she worked to include language in the Senate HELP Committee's health insurance reform bill that would ban this discriminatory and harmful insurance company practice.”
Continuing Pain of Domestic Violence
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