The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is bringing attention to the fact that it is legal in eight states and the District of Columbia for insurance companies to deny coverage due to previous instances of domestic violence. The eight states include Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

“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.”

It’s bad enough that cancer, diabetes, depression and any other number of diseases are denied by our current health care system. Though sometimes these diseases are preventable by maintaining a healthy diet and by preventing foreign chemicals such as nicotine from entering your body, US citizens are still going to develop cancer and diabetes, etc, because they are predisposed to such genes. And now Domestic Violence is preventable as well?

I have been in a Domestic Violence situation before. The offender usually starts off nice and sweet and loving at the beginning, otherwise NO ONE would ever choose to become involved with someone of their ilk. By the time the true personality of the offender comes out, it is often too late for the victimized party to realize who they are with.

Now, in 8 states, people are being punished for dating or marrying the wrong person in the health care system. We should be helping these people, not re-victimizing them!

In 2006, Senator Pat Murray (D-Wash.) introduced an amendment that would prohibit insurance companies from claiming Domestic Violence as a preexisting condition. The amendment failed after a 10-10 vote. The issue has never been revisited.

The SEIU is urging people to speak out against the practice by petitioning to the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy, Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).