Guess what else is a pre-existing condition : Rape

Marek · Oct 21, 2009

Just when I thought they couldn't be any more heartless.

http://huffpostfund.org/stories/200...e-risk-aids-or-health-insurance#ixzz0UbBMXLVy

Rape Victim's Choice: Risk AIDS or Health Insurance?
Women Who Are Attacked Can Get Tangled in the Insurance System

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.

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.

Stories of how victims of sexual assault can get tangled in the health insurance system have been one result of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund’s citizen journalism project, which is calling on readers to provide information and anecdotes about the inner workings of the insurance industry. The project aims to uncover details and data that can inform the larger debate over how to fix the nation’s health care system. As the Investigative Fund reported in September, health insurance companies are not required to make public their records on how often claims are denied and for what reasons.

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.

Susan Pisano, spokeswoman for the health insurance industry’s largest trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, said insurers do not discriminate against victims of sexual assault and ordinarily would not even know if a patient had been raped.

"These issues you are bringing up, they deserve to be brought up,” said Pisano. "People who have experienced rape and sexual assault are victims and we want them to be in a system where everyone is covered."

Turner’s story about HIV drugs is not unusual, said Cindy Holtzman, an insurance agent and expert in medical billing at Medical Refund Service, Inc. of Marietta, Ga. Insurers generally categorize HIV-positive people as having a pre-existing condition and deny them coverage. Holtzman said that health insurance companies also consistently decline coverage for anyone who has taken anti-HIV drugs, even if they test negative for the virus. “It’s basically an automatic no,” she said.

evil wasabi · Oct 21, 2009

Sounds like a lawsuit.

You know what a lawsuit sounds like?

everything.

Neogeofan12 · Oct 21, 2009

I'm sorry but what a stupid bitch. If you don't know the person and they offer you a drink, DON'T DRINK IT. Shit my college's women's center keep posting signs about the warnings of date rape drugs time to time again.

Marek · Oct 21, 2009

^

You are a stupid piece of shit.

Marek · Oct 21, 2009

wasabi said:
Sounds like a lawsuit.

You know what a lawsuit sounds like?

everything.

You know what else sounds like everything?

An intervention.

Neogeofan12 · Oct 21, 2009

Poppy said:
^

You are a stupid piece of shit.

It's called common sense.

evil wasabi · Oct 21, 2009

Poppy said:
You know what else sounds like everything?

An intervention.

You know,

ok, here's what's up - this girl went to a bar hoping to get some attention from dudes. She got it. I don't advocate rape, but I do advocate mitigating risk to all my clients.

If I know a client drinks, I advise them not to drive. If I find that a client has been arrested on a DUI, I advise them to take the alcohol class, make a donation to MADD, take a driver rehabilitation course to remove points, and anything else that will keep them out of jail. If my client ignores all the common sense good advice and goes to jail, then I can't feel sorry.

People make terrible decisions. Stupid decisions. And they think that these are okay because the chance of complete meltdown is low. But it's still there. Crack has a 15% addiction rate. That doesn't mean that on your 7th pipe hit you'll be 100% addicted. It could happen on the first.

If I have a daughter, I'd make her volunteer in a hospital's shock trauma ward. I'd make her help counsel rape victims. She would know that stupid decisions have serious consequences.

On a side note, of course the insurance companies should be sued. But it's not because this is a rape scenario, it's because they mitigate their own risks in ways that should be illegal, but are often protected by contract language.

Marek · Oct 21, 2009

wasabi said:
If I have a daughter, I'd make her volunteer in a hospital's shock trauma ward. I'd make her help counsel rape victims. She would know that stupid decisions have serious consequences.

That's some of the most solid advice I've ever seen out of you.

On a side note, of course the insurance companies should be sued. But it's not because this is a rape scenario, it's because they mitigate their own risks in ways that should be illegal, but are often protected by contract language.

I agree fully.

The crack analogy is humorous but in the end it doesn't fit. Nobody smokes crack thinking, "Well there is an 85% chance I won't get hooked on this awesome shit"

That's why I'll never try crack and refuse to smoke coke.

evil wasabi · Oct 21, 2009

Poopeye said:
I agree fully.

The crack analogy is humorous but in the end it doesn't fit. Nobody smokes crack thinking, "Well there is an 85% chance I won't get hooked on this awesome shit"

That's why I'll never try crack and refuse to smoke coke.

I know a lot of people who got addicted to drugs like meth, oxy, and coke (which I seriously think should be impossible, but apparently it's not), and I doubt that any of them thought it could get to that point. We, as humans in general, tend to think we're fucking invincible.

Have you ever made a bad decision that you would absolutely not make while sober? I know I have.

aria · Oct 21, 2009

Neogeofan12 said:
I'm sorry but what a stupid bitch. If you don't know the person and they offer you a drink, DON'T DRINK IT. Shit my college's women's center keep posting signs about the warnings of date rape drugs time to time again.

lolwut? Feeling guilty?

Marek · Oct 21, 2009

wasabi said:
I know a lot of people who got addicted to drugs like meth, oxy, and coke (which I seriously think should be impossible, but apparently it's not), and I doubt that any of them thought it could get to that point. We, as humans in general, tend to think we're fucking invincible.

True. I lost my "I am invincible" complex a few years ago.

Cocaine addiction is possible, but it requires a shitload of the real stuff and prolonged use. I know a dude who shakes, sweats, and generally looks like he's in withdrawals when he can't get coke.

Have you ever made a bad decision that you would absolutely not make while sober? I know I have.

More often than I care to admit.

IcBlUsCrN · Oct 21, 2009

Poopeye said:
That's why I'll never try crack and refuse to smoke coke.

try and smoke coke ....let me know how that works out for you

wasabi said:
I know a lot of people who got addicted to drugs like meth, oxy, and coke (which I seriously think should be impossible, but apparently it's not)

i think people who get addicted to coke are the same who get addicted to coffee ,alcohol ,weed or anything else

Blue Steel · Oct 21, 2009

The situation is that rape victims are viewed as having a pre-existing condition according to insurance companies, and that is fucking bullshit.

Deuce · Oct 21, 2009

Never mind the individual case here (I can't say I'm especially sympathetic to her plight, assuming she actually did accept a pre-prepared drink from a strange guy)... the larger issue is that HIV preventative medication can make one uninsurable? That's just idiotic. It sets dangerous precedents.

Marek · Oct 21, 2009

IcBlUsCrN said:
try and smoke coke ....let me know how that works out for you

Um, no?

Poonman · Oct 21, 2009

Popeye said:
Um, no?

He thinks you can only snort it.

Asmoday · Oct 21, 2009

God forbid we get a public option that allows people to sit in judgement as to if a patient should be allowed insurance benefits for coverage..... :annoyed:

Lagduf · Oct 21, 2009

Deuce said:
Never mind the individual case here (I can't say I'm especially sympathetic to her plight, assuming she actually did accept a pre-prepared drink from a strange guy)... the larger issue is that HIV preventative medication can make one uninsurable? That's just idiotic. It sets dangerous precedents.

I feel like we're not getting the whole story here.

Is it hard to detect HIV immediately after you contract it? Why wouldn't she have had proof she didn't have HIV shortly after she was raped (assuming she didn't contract it, of course.)

Either way it is a dangerous precedent.

evil wasabi · Oct 21, 2009

If I could routinely and habitually do lines off a hot chick's breasts then I'd be fucking addicted. But otherwise, cocaine is a pretty lame drug.

Lagduf · Oct 21, 2009

wasabi said:
If I could routinely and habitually do lines off a hot chick's breasts then I'd be fucking addicted. But otherwise, cocaine is a pretty lame drug.

Wouldn't doing most activities off of hot chick's breasts make it naturally addicting?

Asmoday · Oct 21, 2009

Lagduf said:
I feel like we're not getting the whole story here.

Is it hard to detect HIV immediately after you contract it? Why wouldn't she have had proof she didn't have HIV shortly after she was raped (assuming she didn't contract it, of course.)

Either way it is a dangerous precedent.

As of about 5 years ago you still had to wait until your body started producing antibodies that are prevalant in HIV patients to be able to indicate if someone actually had it. They gave you a baseline test on day one then like 3-6 months later you got another one so it wasn't immediate. They may have something that is quicker now, but when Adam left Loveline I stopped listening so I wouldn't know.

Asmoday · Oct 21, 2009

wasabi said:
If I could routinely and habitually do lines off a hot chick's breasts then I'd be fucking addicted. But otherwise, cocaine is a pretty lame drug.

Your opinion here is in the minority in my experience. I have known a number of people who have done coke as I was a bar tender for a long, long time and all of them say its the best feeling they have ever had in their lives, but the return to normalcy SUCKS and after prolonged use a couple people started experiencing massive panic or anxiety attacks that led them straight to xanax.

NeoCverA · Oct 21, 2009

This thread looks familiar. Hasn't this been discused before?

Marek · Oct 21, 2009

wasabi said:
If I could routinely and habitually do lines off a hot chick's breasts then I'd be fucking addicted. But otherwise, cocaine is a pretty lame drug.

Hot chick's breasts aren't half as awesome as fire blow. Effects aside, it is a whole hell of a lot harder to find pure coke than it is to see a hot chick's breasts anyway.

NeoCverA said:
This thread looks familiar. Hasn't this been discused before?

Sort of. I made a thread similar to this, only about domestic violence rather than rape.

norton9478 · Oct 21, 2009

Just remember this every time you see some republicans suggest making insurance so that you can buy it across state lines.

Guess what else is a pre-existing condition : Rape

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