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The Battered Woman’s Defense

Constance Camus — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:05:35 +0000

Disclaimer: Do Not Try This at Home.

The great jazz singer Dinah Washington sings “Send Me to the Electric Chair” from her Bessie Smith album
c.1958

Dinah Washington

And by the Dixie Chicks, Goodbye Earl:

Chris Brown is Literally the Dumbest Man Alive

Constance Camus — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:19:25 +0000

When Getting Beaten By Your Husband Is A Pre-Existing Condition

Constance Camus — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:02:08 +0000

Facts revealed in the following reports by Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post, the Service Employees International Union “SEIU” and the video by Young Turks, will shock even the most desensitized of consciences. Here we have yet another blatant example that greed rules our once great and compassionate country.

Our country is in moral decay. Hand in hand with the prevalence of greed, strolls incivility. La te da. The last few days are prime examples of the many despicable public displays – Serena Williams, Kanye West, and Congressman Wilson. Unfortunately, in my own profession there is an alarming increase in bad behavior amongst attorneys. Don’t laugh – it wasn’t always that way… Many of us were taught that one did not have to be disagreeable to disagree. But that is a conversation for another day.

However, when one connects the dots of just these two sad realities – greed and incivility – the picture becomes clear – the raging narcissists and insidious sociopaths are running the asylum. We are in a fight for the very soul of civilization.

The strength of our republic lies in the middle class. Who else is there….but just us? (Pun intended.) It is past the time for action.

I digress. More on that later. Back to the main story. In the articles below, note the identity of the eight companies Rep. Charles Schumer found in 1995 that refused to write health, life or disability policies for women who have been abused. Perhaps a call to your insurance agent or the insurance commissioner of your state would at least serve to let them know we have not been lulled us into complacency; they have not dumbed us down and good and decent people do outnumber the raging lunatics attracting the media attention. Here are the 2007 insurance company executive salaries, should you need any incentive:

ANNUAL COMPENSATION 2007:

* Ronald A. Williams, Chair/ CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834
* H. Edward Hanway, Chair/ CEO, Cigna Corp, $30.16 million
* David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/ CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million
* Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc, $20.06 million
* Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529
* Angela F. Braly, President/ CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771
* Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million
* Jay M. Gellert, President/ CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million
* William C. Van Faasen, Chairman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mass., $3 million plus $16.4 million in retirement benefits
* Charlie Baker, President/ CEO, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, $1.5 million
* James Roosevelt, Jr., CEO, Tufts Associated Health Plans, $1.3 million
* Cleve L. Killingsworth, President/CEO Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3.6 million
* Raymond McCaskey, CEO, Health Care Service Corp (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million
* Daniel P. McCartney, CEO, Healthcare Services Group, Inc, $1,061,513
* Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
* Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
* Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751

With that, the Young Turks:

The Service Employees International Union “SEIU” initially reported on this story. They have organized a call to action. Please heed the call.

Words cannot describe the sheer inhumanity of this claim. It serves as yet further proof that our insurance system is broken, destroyed by the profit-mongering of the very companies whose sole purpose should be to provide Americans with access to care when they need it most. In 1994, an informal survey conducted by the Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee revealed that 8 of the 16 largest insurers in the country used domestic violence as a factor when deciding whether to extend coverage and how much to charge if coverage was extended.

It is clear that insurance companies refuse to police themselves. It’s up to us to call on Congress to take action now to pass health care reform and end discrimination against patients with pre-existing conditions.

Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post writes:

With the White House zeroing in on the insurance-industry practice of discriminating against clients based on pre-existing conditions, administration allies are calling attention to how broadly insurers interpret the term to maximize profits.

How many tears must we shed?

It turns out that in eight states, plus the District of Columbia, getting beaten up by your spouse is a pre-existing condition.

Under the cold logic of the insurance industry, it makes perfect sense: If you are in a marriage with someone who has beaten you in the past, you’re more likely to get beaten again than the average person and are therefore more expensive to insure.

In human terms, it’s a second punishment for a victim of domestic violence.

In 2006, Democrats tried to end the practice. An amendment introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), now a member of leadership, split the Health Education Labor & Pensions Committee 10-10. The tie meant that the measure failed.

All ten no votes were Republicans, including Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), a member of the “Gang of Six” on the Finance Committee who are hashing out a bipartisan bill. A spokesman for Enzi didn’t immediately return a call from Huffington Post.

At the time, Enzi defended his vote by saying that such regulations could increase the price of insurance and make it out of reach for more people. “If you have no insurance, it doesn’t matter what services are mandated by the state,” he said, according to a CQ Today item from March 15th, 2006.

Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for an insurance industry trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), said that the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has proposed ending the discrimination. “The NAIC has a model on this that we strongly supported. That model bans the use of a person’s status as a victim of domestic violence in making a decision on coverage,” he said.

During the last health care reform push, in 1993 and 1994, the industry similarly promised to end discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions.

Murray pushed to include the domestic violence concern in this year’s comprehensive health care bill. “Senator Murray continues to believe that victims of domestic violence should not be punished for the crimes of their abusers. That is why she worked to include language in the Senate HELP Committee’s health insurance reform bill that would ban this discriminatory and harmful insurance company practice,” said spokesman Eli Zupnick.

In 1994, then-Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), now a member of Senate leadership, had his staff survey 16 insurance companies. He found that eight would not write health, life or disability policies for women who have been abused. In 1995, the Boston Globe found that Nationwide, Allstate, State Farm, Aetna, Metropolitan Life, The Equitable Companies, First Colony Life, The Prudential and the Principal Financial Group had all either canceled or denied coverage to women who’d been beaten.

The Service Employees International Union asked members to write letters to Congress regarding the exclusion and have quickly generated hundreds, says an SEIU spokeswoman.

The relevant provision:

SEC. 2706. PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPANTS AND BENEFICIARIES BASED ON HEALTH STATUS.

(a) IN GENERAL.–A group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage may not establish rules for eligibility (including continued eligibility) of any individual to enroll under the terms of the plan or coverage based on any of the following health status-related factors in relation to the individual or a dependent of the individual:

(1) Health status.

(2) Medical condition (including both physical and mental illnesses)

(3) Claims experience.

(4) Receipt of health care.

(5) Medical history.

(6) Genetic information.

(7) Evidence of insurability (including conditions arising out of acts of domestic violence).

(8) Disability.

(9) Any other health status-related factor determined appropriate by the Secretary.

UPDATE: The eight states that still allow it are Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming, according to a report by the National Women’s Law Center.

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?

Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post.

In 1979, Bob Dylan wrote this song and it is as true today as it was relevant then:

Bob Dylan

When You Gonna Wake Up?

God don’t make no promises that He don’t keep.
You got some big dreams, baby, but in order to dream you gotta still be asleep.

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?

Counterfeit philosophies have polluted all of your thoughts.
Karl Marx has got ya by the throat, Henry Kissinger’s got you tied up in knots.

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?

You got innocent men in jail, your insane asylums are filled,
You got unrighteous doctors dealing drugs that’ll never cure your ills.

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?

You got men who can’t hold their peace and women who can’t control their tongues,
The rich seduce the poor and the old are seduced by the young.

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?

Adulterers in churches and pornography in the schools,
You got gangsters in power and lawbreakers making rules.

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?

Spiritual advisors and gurus to guide your every move,
Instant inner peace and every step you take has got to be approved.

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?

Do you ever wonder just what God requires?
You think He’s just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires.

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?

You can’t take it with you and you know that it’s too worthless to be sold,
They tell you, “Time is money” as if your life was worth its weight in gold.

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?

There’s a Man up on a cross and He’s been crucified.
Do you have any idea why or for who He died?

Copyright © 1979 Special Rider Music

UPDATE from SEIU:

In eight states, it is legal for insurance companies to deny coverage to victims of domestic violence, classifying it as a “pre-existing condition.”

This week, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy is conducting hearings examining insurance company interference with patient-doctor decisions. We’re asking the Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Dennis Kucinich to question the insurance industry on whether they’ve denied claims based on domestic violence in the past, and to pledge to never discriminate against victims of domestic violence.

Tell Rep. Kucinich: Demand Answers from the Insurance Industry on Claiming Domestic Violence as a “Pre-Existing Condition”

No one should be denied health care coverage, least of all, people who have already endured so much.

Urge Rep. Kucinich to publicly question insurance companies on this practice during his hearings on Sept. 16th & 17th. Go here to participate.

Domestic Violence is Real

Constance Camus — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:44:50 +0000

This is an amazing and innovative domestic violence ad from Amnesty International that reacts and changes itself when you look at it. When you aren’t looking at the poster it shows an act of domestic violence between a couple. When you do look at the poster, a camera sensor activates and shows a couple pretending to be happy. The billboard works by scanning its proximity with an eye-tracking camera, which triggers an image switch on the display panel when it senses someone looking at it. The change only occurs after a brief delay, so that observers understand what’s going on, and presumably get the message.

Domestic Violence PSA

Make no mistake – domestic violence is real. If you see or hear it – report it.

New Maryland Domestic Violence Laws Signed Today by Governor

Constance Camus — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:30:31 +0000

May 19, 2009

A Message from Lt. Governor Brown

Dear Friends,

Earlier today, Governor O’Malley signed legislation that will take guns out the hands of domestic abusers. For me, and far too many other Marylanders, this new law strikes a personal chord.

My cousin Cathy was killed by her estranged boyfriend last summer. She was one of 75 Marylanders who lost their lives because of domestic violence. Our efforts to take firearms out of the picture in abusive situations won’t bring Cathy or any of the other victims back, but they will save lives in the years to come.

I thank Governor O’Malley and the members of the Maryland General Assembly for taking up this important issue and putting this common-sense measure into law.

There is still work to do. We will continue to work with our partners and allies in the nonprofit community to educate men and women about domestic violence. By working together and putting Maryland’s families first, we can win the fight against domestic violence and save lives in every community.

Anthony Brown

Lieutenant Governor

The first legislation signed today allows Maryland judges to order a person under a temporary protective order to surrender his or her firearms. The other measure signed requires a judge to order someone to surrender his or her guns upon the issuance of a permanent protective order. These laws become effective October 1, 2009.