This would return us to a horror that was long ago rectified under the ACA, aka Obamacare. Right before the ACA's passage in 2010, the Huffington Post wrote a story about a young lady who was drugged, raped, and left by the side of the road. Her doctor prescribed her a treatment of anti-viral, post-HIV exposure drugs to protect her against HIV transmission. But her nightmare didn't end: she lost her health insurance after the assault, and found out that she wasn't able to obtain new insurance because the sexual assault was regarded as a pre-existing condition. She had no healthcare for three years. HuffPo found many other stories like hers. Turns out, before the ACA, this was a common practice. From the 2010 HuffPo article:
Several women told the Investigative Fund that after being sexually assaulted they had been denied care or ruled ineligible for health insurance because of what were deemed pre-existing conditions stemming from their assaults — particularly post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
A 38-year-old woman in Ithaca, N.Y., said she was raped last year and then penalized by insurers because in giving her medical history she mentioned an assault she suffered in college 17 years earlier. The woman, Kimberly Fallon, told a nurse about the previous attack and months later, her doctor’s office sent her a bill for treatment. She said she was informed by a nurse and, later, the hospital’s billing department that her health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, not only had declined payment for the rape exam, but also would not pay for therapy or medication for trauma because she “had been raped before.”
Fallon says she now has trouble getting coverage for gynecological exams. To avoid the hassle of fighting with her insurance company, she goes to Planned Parenthood instead and pays out of pocket.
Not only did health insurers categorize rape as a pre-existing health condition, but other issues that seemed to target one gender in particular: C-sections, domestic violence, and postpartum depression.
All of which will go back to being considered pre-existing conditions if Trumpcare is passed today.
The protections women have today were hard fought. The Woman's Law Center led the charge to ensure the ACA would fix these issues, and Nancy Pelosi took up the mantle. When the ACA was passed, Nancy Pelosi stated that being a woman would never again be a pre-existing condition.
But nobody predicted Trump’s GOP.
There is plenty to hate about Trumpcare. The fact that it completely eviscerates Special Education, , guts Medicaid, allows insurers to quintuple rates for older people, and---what this is all really about—a huge tax cut for those who need it least—the superwealthy.
But making rape a pre-existing condition to be denied is a special kind of cruel. Trump doesn’t give a damn. Hell, right before this vote, his administration just hired five people who have been accused of sexual assault!!
Even if the GOP doesn’t care, YOU do. It’s time for your voice to be heard. The GOP caves when their feet is held to the fire, and there has never been a time as right now to burn them.
If you haven't called Congress before, do it today—before the vote: (202) 224-3121