Should Domestic Violence Be Considered A Pre-Existing Condition To Insurance Company's?

that's crazy, it's just like trying to get car insurance and they base it on your credit score. Please what does that have to do with how I drive, which is real good with only 1 ticket in the 30 years that I have been driving.

One of the methods used to determine personal responsibility is the manner in which people handle their obligations.

"Not Responsible With Your Money... Not Responsible on the Road?

Many are asking, "What does one's credit rating or credit score have to do with their insurance policy premium or insurance quote?" The answer may surprise you. Insurance companies feel that if you are not responsible with your money, then you are more than likely not going to be responsible on the road. According to his recent statement to CBS, Donald Hanson of the National Association of Independent Insurers agrees. Hanson stated, "Research indicates that people who manage their personal finances responsibly tend to manage other important aspects of their life with that same level of responsibility and that would include being responsible behind the wheel of their car or being responsible in maintaining their home." Some disagree with Hanson's ideas on insurance credit scoring and feel it creates a hardship for many who are already struggling." HERE

This method of determining personal responsibilities, in my opinion, lacks the attribute of allowing for certain variables such as loss of jobs, unforeseen expenses and in the case of our present situation...a collapsed economy.

That gets my goat as well. I do have alot of medical bills, yet never had a wreck, and 1 ticket in 30+ years of driving. Yet, I get a crappy rate.

Goes to show how much control insurance companies has on state governments which regulate car insurance

I have never thought about this. You bring up a startling question, at least to me, because I have never actually considered how abuse could come into play with health insurance.

the insurance companies are really reaching the bottom of the barrel~that's disturbing and inhumane
and I agree with you~make the f***ers who cause physical and emotional damage pay for the treatment~
Like you I have PTSD~to this day when someone walks into the room and if I'm deep n thought I almost hit the ceiling from jumping~ I still can't be touched~ and the pain from past injuries is an ever present reminder~
I'm glad you are at last getting the help you need to be able to discuss it and in time move past it for yourself~

I just want them to suffer as I have.

If domestic violence is a pre-existing condition, it is a condition not of the individual but of the society. Victims of violence, people put into a condition needing medical treatment because another person injured them, ought to be attended to by the criminal justice system if there is any justice in the society. We get all excited and spend the big bucks to warehouse people in prisons, where they get free medical care by law. I'm much less concerned with "getting" the "bad guy" than with returning to the victim as much as possible as what they lost.

Thank you!

"Currently, forty-one states have enacted legislation with varying degrees of protection for victims of domestic violence from the discriminatory actions taken by insurance companies. Some state legislatures have enacting legislation that restricts the insurance companies’ abilities to use the classification of domestic violence as a restriction for coverage. However, the medical history of frequent visits to the emergency room may be used in determining the risks involved in insuring the individual. Other states have enacted stricter legislation that prohibits an insurance company from restricting coverage for any restriction stemming from the classification, use of medical history in which the company knew or should have known as incidents of domestic violence, or attempting to restrict coverage as a pre-existing condition for continued care in relation to past domestic violence assaults.' HERE

I can't get Health Insurance because I am a Diabetic, and have had several surgeries-none related to the abuse I went thru. The crap is stacked around me. But the domestic violence issue needs to be assesed. I'm sick of my tax dollars going to prisoners who get a cot and 3 hots a day at my expense when I can't afford to go to the Doctor.

Seems to me they will do just about anything they can get away with to avoid covering people. They want your money. Period.

But they sure don't want to offer you anything in return.

The only thing I can thnk of that would be a fair solution is that domestic violence should not be considered a pre-existing condition if the violence were perpetrated by a different offender to the claimant. If, hwever, the claimant stays in a relationship where the claimant is knowingly putting him or herself at risk because he or she has previously been assaulted and treated for that assault, then it should be considered a pre-existing condition.

There are two reasons I think this.

1. Staying in abusive relationships is irresponsible and premiums for insurance companies that continually have to treat injuries sustained in these repetitive incidents can be very costly. There is no reason for a new insurer to have to take on that liability so that its rates will also increase.

2. It is very difficult for some people to leave abusive relationships. The idea that there won't always be the necessary fallback on the insurance to pick up the tab for related injuries may serve as a catalyst for that person to rid him or herself of the perpetrator and leave the relationship.

Sue...And then there is the problem of children as abuse victims...whose injuries (mental and physical) stay with them as adults.

Yes, and children should also be exempt from the pre-existing condition because they have no choice in the matter at least until they are of legal age, and maybe some time beyond that.

Let me add, though that the children in these abusive relationships often find themselves married to people who are abusive. The husband or abusive wife, being as a I said above, a different perpetrator would also still make the grown child exempt from a pre-existent rule. The psychological and physical help that person is getting from medical treatment would address the issue while encouraging the victim to leave the abusive relationship. Now if that person marries another abuser and has a different insurance plan, that person would still be getting help because it's a new perpetrator. However, whenever the abused stays in a relationship and the insurance plan changes, if the abuser is still in a relationship for which a claim has been previously made, the pre-existing condition would hold. I believe that knowing that there may not always be a cushion will help them to realize the practicality of not being involved in abusive relationships that might also finally help to result in a better self image that will cause them to lead happier and more productive lives.

I think that this type of proper consideration given to all aspects of insurance decisions can cut costs and make fairer and more affordable premiums available, but we are not a caring enough nation to painstakingly consider how insurance can be fairer in these ways, unfortunately. We just want to dismiss it altogether and give another entity the same scope of power. That's just mindless groupthink, and not the kind of thinking of a nation that is supposed to be a leader in the world.

It seems to be the trend that companies are moving further and further away from compassion and more towards the profit margin.

Look do not worry.
If they did this no one in our country would be able to be covered if they are honest with the insurance companies. If they want to check all backgrounds...... one may get away with lying to them?
Domestic violence is so common (to what degree will have to be determined) . I will be shocked if insurance companies get away with this!!
Compassion and insurance companies never had walked hand in hand.....

This is one reason, Insurance Companies shoudl not be involved in health care, they cant make enough profit if they pay pay out and so that means all we have is a no-health healthcare system

You've GOT to be kidding me.

Nope.

I don't care how they figure it I feel using domestic violence as a precondition is a horrible tactic.

The last accident I was involved in was in 1984 and I was hit when a man ran a light. When my insurance rates went up I raised hell and got it back to were it was. Then a few years later they raised it again to a whopping degree when I got behind on bills when my wife was seriously ill and the insurance maxed out. I think it stinks to punish people for changes in their lifestyle due to no fault of their own. To me its a sick way to do business and reeks of being immoral.

Bravo!!! (loud applause)

I guess you people cannot understand that these kinds of things do need reforming, but merely changing the authority of who is controlling the dispersement of your health care needs is not reforming the system. It is merely changing who controls who gets and does not get care with parameters that are going to be equally or more unfair to some people unless the specifics are reformed. No, I don't just guess, and it's futile to try to make you see it because you just can't. Cheer yourselves on. Ignorance is bliss, so they say.

It's wrong in so many ways that if I hadn't heard about it myself I wouldn't belive it could happen in the U.S. Sounds more like something in Iraq. The insurance companies (and apparently lawmakers) should be deeply ashamed that they choose the almighty dollar over human rights. I'm ashamed as an American to know it happens here.

I am too.

'Democrats vow to ban domestic violence as 'pre-existing condition' CNNPolitics.com

No. Domestic violence is a crime, not a preexisting condition.

What about this analogy...if you live in a low-rent neighborhood where crimes happen a lot, anything to do with crimes/drugs/gunshots are pre-existing conditions. Just another way for insurance companies deny coverage...

OCTOBER IS NATIONAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH

Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention, Liz. Sometimes it gets overshadowed by breast cancer awareness month which is also this month. Seems like they should almost be in seperate months as both are very important!

Here is a link to President Obama's National Domestic Violence Awareness Month Proclamation!