WASHINGTON (CNN) — Top House Democrats on Tuesday slammed
insurers who claim that domestic violence is a pre-existing condition
that can be used to deny coverage to battered women.
They pledged to incorporate a ban on the
practice in the health care reform legislation winding its way through
Congress.
Forty-two states have passed such a prohibition,
according to a recent report from the National Women’s Law Center.
Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South
Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming and the District of Columbia have not,
however.
“Think of this,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
“You’ve survived domestic violence, and now you are discriminated
[against] in the insurance market because you have a pre-existing
medical condition. Well, that will all be gone.”
The ban would be
part of a broader prohibition against the use of pre-existing
conditions to deny care, a component of all the reform bills now under
consideration.
Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat, told
CNN that she heard about the issue several years ago while talking to
women who trying to escape abusive relationships.
One of the
women “told me that she did not report her domestic violence because her
health insurance company would drop her. I [initially] didn’t believe”
the woman, Murray said.
Murray introduced an amendment banning
the practice in 2006 but was unable to get the measure approved.
One Republican opposed to the amendment, North Carolina Sen. Richard
Burr, argued that it’s “deplorable to deny coverage to victims of
domestic violence. However, states should be responsible for regulating
insurance markets.”
On Tuesday, a spokesman for an association
representing health insurance companies backed the
proposed change.
“No one should be denied coverage because they
are a victim of domestic abuse,” said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for
America’s Health Insurance Plans.
It is unclear how many women
are now being denied coverage because they are stuck in an abusive
relationship. Women’s Law Center Vice President Judy Waxman conceded
that there are no current examples.
“We do not know the extent to
which this practice actually happens,” she said. “But our point is,
it’s the kind of thing insurance companies look to do. … They will
find ways in the current situation to deny people care if they find
anything wrong with them.”
Some reform advocates say the proposed
federal action, though a positive step, does not go far enough.
“We have to go further and take affirmative steps to reach out to
battered women who may have been denied coverage to let them know the
landscape has changed and there may be insurance options available to
them,” said Shelley Senterfitt, a representative of the Georgia
Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
“We need
to fix the damage that’s been done,” she said.
– CNN
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