Comments on: Just Being Alive Will Soon be a Pre-existing Condition

By: Katherine

Katherine — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:02:07 +0000

Thank you for sharing your story. It shouldn’t be necessary, but it is a more powerful argument because of your personal experience.

By: Dana

Dana — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:02:34 +0000

Joanne, I’m so glad you got out. I feel awful for the women who aren’t so lucky.

When I was 12, I babysat for a relative while she and her husband attended a wedding. When they returned home, they were arguing and the husband struck his wife so hard she fell into a glass table and had cuts all over her arms, stomach and legs.

I was terrified. Even half-frozen in fear, I made my way to another room and called my father to come get me; there was no way this man was driving me home.

When my dad arrived he tried to reason with the husband but he became forceful and my dad had to defend himself, as well as our relative, myself and their kids.

It’s something I’ve never forgotten, and I know my relative needed several stitches for one of the deeper gashes. I can’t imagine what she would have done without insurance coverage.

By: Carissa Daniels

Carissa Daniels — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:19:03 +0000

I am an online domestic violence advocate, working online with victims all over the world. I also am a domestic violence survivor, both as a childhood victim and as an adult. The fact that insurance companies can even consider calling surviving domestic violence a “preexisting condition” does not surprise me. (Very little does…I have seen and heard it all)
The bottom line seems to be that the insurance companies have everything going their way, and they want to keep it that way regardless of how many lives are ruined financially or how many victims die. No problem as long as it doesn’t impact their profits?! Previous posts are right. Healthcare is rationed now, and people like me and the victims I work with lose because we unknowingly got with an abusive partner. They want victims to leave, and yet when they do, what happens? One more penalty for telling the truth, and one more roadblock stopping victims from getting and staying safe.

By: Momish

Momish — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:12:39 +0000

When I was a social worker, I worked a few abused women and it broke my heart. I am sorry to hear you had to suffer through that in the past, but am so happy to hear it is the past. Insurance companies make me sick when they pull crap like this. An outrage! However, the term “pre-existing condition” technically translates to a condition that existed before it existed. I honestly cannot think of anything, yet alone a condition, that existed before it existed. I think there might be a basis for a lawsuit in that!

By: KAT12sb

KAT12sb — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:07:34 +0000

What’s next is a slew of other “pre-existing conditions” insurance companies can also use (and do) to deny coverage to women — being pregnant or having a c-section for example. Insurance companies can cite pregnancy as grounds to deny a woman coverage based on her “pre-existing condition.” (http://www.seiu.org/2009/09/insurance-companies-consider-c-section-birth-pre-existing-condition.php) Same goes for Cesarean section pregnancies being categorized as “pre-existing conditions.” So for all those anti-reformers who say that they don’t want rationed healthcare if Obama’s healthcare plan is enacted…wake up and smell the coffee, haters! Healthcare in this country is ALREADY rationed. Insurance industries aren’t going to stop their corruption & blatant denial of coverage on their own—we need reform now.

By: jodifur

jodifur — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:14:55 +0000

I’m just so glad you wrote this. I was a victim of dating violence and when I read these headlines, I was floored.

By: injaynesworld

injaynesworld — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:13:53 +0000

Because domestic violence is so often thought of as just a woman’s issue, it is dismissed as so many other issues affecting women are. We are still a patriarchal society that fears women and seeks to suppress us in every possible way. Why do insurance companies cover Viagra, but not birth control? If men could get pregnant you can bet they’d cover it. If more men who are battered would speak out, we might be able to start an intelligent dialogue on the problem, but they don’t and we all know why. Thank you for sharing your story. I certainly hope we can raise the awareness on the subject enough to get women angry, involved and marching in the streets.

By: Fantastic Forrest

Fantastic Forrest — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:25:50 +0000

Great post. Thanks for shining a light on this issue. I’ve been asked to pull together a mini-course – five two-hour sessions – about health care reform. The class is for 55 and older folks, held at our local college. I’d love hearing from you about any other subtopics you think are noteworthy. I wish you lived in the Northwest – I’d try to persuade you to come speak!

If any of you commenters have ideas, please send them my way as well! You can email me at halfirishrover at yahoo dot com.

Thanks.

By: Daisy

Daisy — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:57:38 +0000

I am shocked, but not surprised. The local domestic abuse shelter is within walking distance of my school; we have extra security because we teach kids who may be at risk from abusive parents just as their moms (or dads) are at risk from the spouse, significant other, or ex. Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, that insurance would consider getting beaten up on a regular basis to be a non-insurable “condition.”

By: annie

annie — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:46:41 +0000

I am at a loss to explain why health insurance companies and their sleazy practices are still be considered something worthy of protecting from a public option.

I know I say this a lot, but I am not surprised by this revelation. Nothing that happens in the name of profit and shareholders comes as much of a shock anymore. What does surprise me a little are the people protesting on behalf of systems that would destroy them and their families for a buck or two more in their own pockets. But I guess it’s not unheard of for people to defend and protect their abusers, is it?