Big Insurance Defines Abuse as a Pre-Existing Condition

Big Insurance Defines Abuse as a Pre-Existing Condition
by The Bagof Health and Politics
Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 10:11:52 PM PDT
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/14/781687/-Big-Insurance-Defines-Abuse-as-a-Pre-Existing-Condition-


It takes people who lack a moral compass to justify nine figure salaries while denying cancer patients care because they failed to disclose previous bouts of acne. It is no surprise that insurance executives, who are always busy chasing after the next five figure bonus, are coming up with a novel way to deny people access to medical care: labeling survivors of domestic violence as "individuals with pre-existing conditions."


5:03 PM Eastern - September 11, 2009
Domestic violence victims have a "pre-existing condition"?
By Maria Tchijov

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.

But, in DC and nine other states, including Arkansas, 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 decided whether to extend coverage and how much to charge if coverage was extended.

more:
http://www.seiu.org/2009/09/domestic-violence-victims-have-a-pre-existing-condition.php

(dupe!)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6537605

:hi:

after they refused to pay for chelation for lead poisoning. (just FYI: the US military had chelation developed after WWII to treat soldiers who had inoperable lead bullets lodged about their person)

Their board (not necessarily M.D.s) decided which treatments were experimental.

"Based on that criteria," I said "you could declare aspirin as an experimental treatment."

"That's right." the rep. replied with no trace of shame or irony.


There is a special circle of Hell waiting for these people.