Insurance Story

By Bryan Bergeron

A report published by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) in October found that women face “unfair and discriminatory practices when obtaining health insurance in the individual market.”

The report, entitled, “Still nowhere to turn: Insurance companies treat women like a pre-existing condition,” can be found on NWLC’s website, http://www.nwlc.org. The report states that the current health insurance system regards being a woman as a “pre-existing” condition. According to the report, gender ratings continue to occur in a majority of states, causing significant challenges for women trying to obtain individual health insurance. The report also showed that it is common for non-smoking females to be charged more for coverage then male smokers, while a majority of individual markets exclude maternity care.

The recent report also uncovered the fact that it is still legal for insurers in some states to reject applicants who are survivors of domestic violence.

Currently, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming and the District of Columbia have yet to pass legislation prohibiting insurance companies from claiming that domestic violence is a pre-existing condition.

“That’s making someone ineligible for coverage not because of something they did to themselves, but for something that someone has done to them,” said Maria Luisa O’Neal, the programs service coordinator for the National Coalition against Domestic Violence in Denver, Co. said.

While the amount of coverage’s that are being denied or dropped due to domestic violence is impossible to be measured, the practice is still occurring throughout the United States, O’Neal said.

“It’s hard to keep a measure because there is no place where this information is being recorded, but I know that if happens a lot,” O’Neal said.

An article published by the Huffington Post on Oct. 21 proves O’Neal’s statement to be true.

The article focuses on Christina Turner, a 45-year old woman who was prescribed a month’s worth of anti-HIV medication after she was sexually assaulted by two men. Due to this prescription, insurers would not provide Turner with coverage because they believed that her HIV medication posed too many health risks.

The article also tells the story of Kimberly Fallon, a 38 year-old native of Ithaca N.Y. Fallon was penalized in her insurance due to an admission that she was raped a year earlier, and sexually assaulted in an incident in college 17 years earlier.

“Morally, this type of thing is not ok, but it all boils down to whether or not insurers can get away with it or not,” O’Neal said. “Basically, you are out of luck if they are legally within their guidelines.”

United Health Care was contacted for comment on this story, but did not return phone calls.

The recent report was the second such study published by the NWLC in the past two years. The first report, entitled “Nowhere to turn: How the individual health insurance market fails women,” was published in 2008.

Since the publication of these reports, states have been working to ban the discriminatory practices that women face when applying for individual health insurance, said Grace Lesser, a programs assistant at the National Women’s Law Center.

In April of 2009, Arkansas passed legislation prohibiting health insurance companies from denying coverage to women who were previously associated with domestic violence. California also took action in October 2009 by becoming the 11th state to ban gender ratings in the individual health insurance market.

Currently, North Carolina is in the process of creating legislation that will ban insurers from claiming that domestic violence is a pre-existing condition, said Brenda Rivera Sanchez, the legal project coordinator for North Carolina’s Coalition against Domestic Violence.

In a letter provided by Rivera, Wayne Goodwin, the insurance commissioner for the North Carolina Department of Insurance states his desire to be taken off the list of eight states that have yet to ban this practice.

The letter, which was addressed to Senator Richard Burr, states that “the N.C. Department of Insurance and I strongly disagree with any assertions that the status of being a victim of domestic violence is allowed to be considered a pre-existing condition in North Carolina.”

Not all states, however, are taking measures to stop this type of discrimination from occurring.

In Oklahoma, the power of large corporations and big businesses is too strong to take down, said Marcia Smith, the coalition director for the Oklahoma Coalition against domestic violence and sexual assault.

According to Smith, there is no current legislation in the works that would stop insurance companies from the discriminatory practices that were outline in the report by the NWLC.

“Any time we try to help these victims, we receive opposition from the large corporations,” Smith said. “They use an economic justification that it cost too much money to help these women- they say it’s too costly.”

While increased media coverage on these issues has caused the movement in Oklahoma to gain some momentum, Smith said that the power of big businesses might be too powerful to take down. Their power might inhibit any legislation from moving forward, Smith said.

“It’s not surprising that it’s an issue and I think that if we move forth with the issues that insurance companies will fight us hard and try to force us to back down,” Smith said. “It’s not unusual in Oklahoma that big businesses and corporations do not support things that we try and do for victims- any time we try to address a serious topic it just becomes a money issue.

A high poverty rate within Oklahoma also contributes to the problems, Smith said. According to an article published on August 27, 2008, on the Oklahoma Policy Institutes web site, Okpolicy.org, 577,000 Oklahomans lived in poverty in 2007, while the poverty rate for women was 17.5 per cent the same year.

Due to this, many women are unable to receive insurance through their work, which forces them to apply for individual health insurance, Smith said.

“Oklahoma is a very high poverty rate state, and we have a lot of people who are uninsured,” Smith said. “A lot of the people that we see in these centers are part of this socio-economic group.”

Numerous Senators from Oklahoma were contacted for comment on this story, but did not return phone calls.

The inability to receive health care through work has not only complicated things in Oklahoma. For women everywhere, there aren’t many places to turn to if they are unable to procure insurance through an employer, said Susan Kelly, the program director of Stop Domestic Violence, which is a program component of behavioral health services in Plattsburgh N.Y.

“It’s very hard for anyone to get health insurance if they don’t get it from their employer,” Kelly said.

When it comes down to it, Kelly believes that the whole issue boils down to money.

“People that have money can get things, and people who don’t can’t,” Kelly said. “I’m sure Donald Trump doesn’t need insurance- he can just pay in cash.”

While the media coverage surrounding the current health care debate has gotten people talking, and has given a voice to the issues surrounding women’s access to insurance, the issue is far from being resolved, said Smith.

“We’ve come a long way, and I’ve seen a lot of changes in the status of women in my lifetime, but we still have a long way to go,” said Smith.

Regardless, this voice is the first step to reform.

“I think the most gratifying thing about this report being published is that it is allowing us to get more in touch with insurance companies and to get our word out,” Lesser said.