Uninsurable because she was raped.....

Nurses Activism

Published

Christina Turner feared that she might have been sexually assaulted after two men slipped her a knockout drug. She thought she was taking proper precautions when her doctor prescribed a month's worth of anti-AIDS medicine.

Only later did she learn that she had made herself all but uninsurable.

Turner had let the men buy her drinks at a bar in Fort Lauderdale. The next thing she knew, she said, she was lying on a roadside with cuts and bruises that indicated she had been raped. She never developed an HIV infection. But months later, when she lost her health insurance and sought new coverage, she ran into a problem.

Turner, 45, who used to be a health insurance underwriter herself, said the insurance companies examined her health records. Even after she explained the assault, the insurers would not sell her a policy because the HIV medication raised too many health questions. They told her they might reconsider in three or more years if she could prove that she was still AIDS-free.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/insurance-companies-rape-_n_328708.html

Unbelievable but true in our current non-system...

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Wow, from the huffington post no less. I can't understand how she was raped if she had health insurance to begin with. I thought only people with no health insurance had bad things happen to them like rape, cancer, seizures, Trauma...

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Does anyone else find this deliciously ironic? I mean...aside from the unfortunate circumstances of the rape. She made a living as an insurance underwriter writing people off for the same technicalities. Now she's stuck on the other side of the fence. I love it.

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Specializes in CTICU.
Does anyone else find this deliciously ironic? I mean...aside from the unfortunate circumstances of the rape. She made a living as an insurance underwriter writing people off for the same technicalities. Now she's stuck on the other side of the fence. I love it.

The rape is "unfortunate" and you love that she's been denied coverage because of it? What a truly distasteful post.

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The rape is "unfortunate" and you love that she's been denied coverage because of it? What a truly distasteful post.

But a different point of view.

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

I'll be honest, I have a serious, serious problem with the accuracy of that article.

There are healthcare professionals EVERY DAY that take AIDS preventive drugs after needlesticks and never once have I ever heard that they were uninsurable.

The article DID NOT say that they cancelled her health insurance...she most likely let it lapse...her taking AIDS preventive drugs NO DOUBT raised questions for a POSSIBLE PRE-EXISTING condition just like ANY other chronic illness....they probably wanted documentation of what it was for, which would have been proven by a police report to document the rape.

I absolutely do not believe that anyone at any health insurance company told her that she would have to wait THREE YEARS to be insured to "prove" that she could remain AIDS free....because the most sophisticated test that we use is accurate by day 90 from infection...which is used by blood banks and organ transplant organizations, etc.

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.

i am so appalled by this that i have no real idea where to begin. as a survivor of a brutal and savage rape by a university police officer as an undergraduate student, a woman, a disabled woman, someone who has counseled rape survivors and served as a court-appointed advocate, as well as a human being, i am only too aware of the long and tortuous road back to feeling safe again. but being raped, changes everything! you do get better with time, counseling, the love, acceptance, and support of family and friends, but, you will never ever feel quite as safe as you did before. ever. ever. ever. it's a thin line between not letting the attacker rent space in your brain and take over your thoughts, and slowly resuming your life. but there's the problem of contracting any one of several diseases you'd rather not get, the matter of being retested several times and what testers assume about you when the labs and exams are drawn or preformed, the threat of pregnancy... having to worry, in addition, about insurance coverage is outrageous and offensive. instead, she must be supported and made to feel safe and less vulnerable. to deny her coverage because she might contract full blown aids or the hiv virus, is heinous. this is just one more way to make the victim pay for being victimized. she will be at increased risk for hpv for the rest of her life as well as this aids scare. are we blaming her for having that drink in the bar? not something a lady does? are we blaming her or enjoying her plight due to her occupation? guess what? irrevelant facts.

bottom line ... she was victimized. she was a rape victim! provide her with the help and support she needs instead of blaming and/or chastizing her and her insurance coverage should be a nonissue!!

off my soapbox!:spbox:

kathy

sharpeimom:paw::paw:

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Specializes in LTC.

Lovely. :icon_roll

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I'll be honest, I have a serious, serious problem with the accuracy of that article.

There are healthcare professionals EVERY DAY that take AIDS preventive drugs after needlesticks and never once have I ever heard that they were uninsurable.

The article DID NOT say that they cancelled her health insurance...she most likely let it lapse...her taking AIDS preventive drugs NO DOUBT raised questions for a POSSIBLE PRE-EXISTING condition just like ANY other chronic illness....they probably wanted documentation of what it was for, which would have been proven by a police report to document the rape.

I absolutely do not believe that anyone at any health insurance company told her that she would have to wait THREE YEARS to be insured to "prove" that she could remain AIDS free....because the most sophisticated test that we use is accurate by day 90 from infection...which is used by blood banks and organ transplant organizations, etc.

Most health care workers in this situation are covered by a group plan (a needle stick would be a workmans comp issue). That tends to minimize denial for "preexisting conditions."

Kathy is right. Rape victims are traumatized enough without also having to undergo this indignity and real risk to health.

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The rape is "unfortunate" and you love that she's been denied coverage because of it? What a truly distasteful post.

You can choose to take the dramatic road and pretend that the rape is the core issue here. It isn't. It's just the most emotional/shocking factor. She was denied insurance because of a technicality with the drugs that made her seem a higher risk then she actually is. You know, it wouldn't kill you to take a little more time with reading comprehension rather then rewording everything you read in such a way that it gives you offense. In no way, shape or form did I say I love that she was raped. The beauty lies in the fact that she's made her living off of denying coverage to others based on same possible risk factors that she's having to deal with now. She's become a victim of the same system she was all too happy to serve. There's a wonderful sense of karmic justice in the air. I'm sorry if you cant see that.

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.
you can choose to take the dramatic road and pretend that the rape is the core issue here. it isn't. it's just the most emotional/shocking factor. she was denied insurance because of a technicality with the drugs that made her seem a higher risk then she actually is. you know, it wouldn't kill you to take a little more time with reading comprehension rather then rewording everything you read in such a way that it gives you offense. in no way, shape or form did i say i love that she was raped. the beauty lies in the fact that she's made her living off of denying coverage to others based on same possible risk factors that she's having to deal with now. she's become a victim of the same system she was all too happy to serve. there's a wonderful sense of karmic justice in the air. i'm sorry if you cant see that.

what i see and, what i think most of us are aware of, is that old rape consequences and ideologies have never quite gone away. that she should and must be repeatedly tested for hiv (among other diseases) for periods of time ranging from months to the remainder of her life are a direct result of the rape. i find your "karmic justice" theory and the snickering middle school - like elation you're finding because

the victim just happened to be in the insurance industry, disgusting and immature. before i get clobbered for personally attacking another member, i did not say you yourself personally were immature, i stated that i found the very idea that payback was appropriate simply because of her job, sounded like a 13 year old girl's statement. i'm done with this thread for now -- i'm off to the other side again.

sharpeimom:paw::paw:

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