McClatchy Newspapers:Eight states and the District of Columbia don't have laws that specifically bar insurance companies from using domestic violence as a pre-existing condition to deny health coverage, according to a study from the National Women's Law Center.
The states are Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming. The study by the nonpartisan, nonprofit center focused on individual coverage, not group coverage.
"This is insane," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who's been trying to get the issue addressed for a decade.
"Murray said she couldn't remember exactly when she first learned of it, but sometime in the 1990s she recalls a private conversation she had with a woman who broke down as she explained that she couldn't flee an abusive relationship because her children were covered under her husband's health care plan and she couldn't get her own," McClatchy Reports. "Another woman told Murray that she didn't report that she'd been battered because she feared losing her coverage."
"It infuriates me an insurance executive can sit in his safe world and decide how to make money," Murray said. "For them it's all about the bottom line. Abused women don't have a voice."
Even if you're one of those who oppose healthcare reform, ask yourself this: is this really the best we can do? Is America completely incapable of delivering healthcare in a fair and equal manner? If so, you really need to start wondering why it is you have such a piss-poor opinion of your country.
