Thursday, 22 October 2009

American Health Failure for Rape Victims

Came across this from the Huffington post shared by one of my American friends on Facebook.

Apparently a rape victim who was drugged before being sexually assaulted followed sound medical advise and took a months worth of Anti-AIDS medication. You would have thought in the word of the memorable line from Trainspotting to 'Choose Life' would have been the salient choice.

Not so her health insurance company. They refused to sell her a policy as the HIV medication asked too many health questions, this despite the case being explained to them. So now you know it people, do not get raped in the USA, or if you do don't take preventative measures for STDs, if you do your insurance company will leave you without health cover.

While a spokeswoman for America's Health Insurance Plans the trade organisation said that insurers do not discriminate against victims of sexual assault and ordinarily would not even know if a patient had been raped. The exclusion of some of the people who have taken this medication is from those who have been victims of a sexual crime and therefore is discriminating against them.

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