You've Got to Be Kidding Me ...

Domestic Violence Victims Have a Pre-Existing Condition?

Insurance companies have used the excuse of "pre-existing conditions" to deny coverage to countless Americans. From cancer patients to the elderly suffering from arthritis, these organizations have padded their profit margins by limiting coverage to patients deemed "high risk" because of their medical condition. I know this first hand as I have Multiple Sclerosis and have been denied insurance time and time again due to my pre-existing condition of M.S. As a result, I am one of the millions of Americans without health insurance. It's not that I wouldn't like it. It's that I can't seem to get accepted by any insurance company to let me have it because of my pre-existing condition called Multiple Sclerosis.

This is bad enough, and just when a person thinks it can't get any worse, several states have decided to declare "domestic violence" victims as having a pre-existing condition. The madness really needs to cease!

It's true: In Arkansas, D.C., 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 deciding whether to extend coverage and how much to charge if coverage was extended.

It is clear that insurance companies refuse to police themselves. It's up to us to call on Congress to take action now to pass health care reform and end discrimination against patients with pre-existing conditions.