The state of
Mississippi still allows insurance companies to consider “domestic
abuse” as a pre-existing condition for which health insurance can be
denied, according to the Jackson Free Press. The newspaper added that
the great majority of states prohibit this practice, and that Arkansas
joined the majority in April.
Arkansas did that with legislative
approval of Act 619, which adds “status as a victim of domestic abuse”
to a list of things insurance companies can’t use as reasons to deny
coverage. Race, sex and national origin were among the factors already
on the list. Rep. Lindsley Smith of Fayetteville, the leading sponsor
of Act 619, said that the original bill went into more detail but that
negotiations with interested parties, including state Insurance
Commissioner Jay Bradford, produced an agreement that rules for
enforcement of the new prohibition would be left to the insurance
commissioner. A former legislator, Bradford sponsored legislation
giving financial aid to domestic-abuse centers, and he’s trusted by
domestic-abuse activists.
Bradford said last week that he hasn’t
yet promulgated such rules but he’s prepared to do so as soon as he
finds a case of domestic abuse being cited as a pre-existing condition.
He said he didn’t know that any such case had ever occurred in
Arkansas, but that domestic-abuse activists nationwide wanted a
prohibition written into the law. Act 619 says that insurance can’t be
denied solely because of a person’s “status as a victim of
domestic abuse.” But if a person suffered an injury from domestic abuse
— an injured vertebra, for example — an insurance company still could
cite the injury itself as a pre-existing condition.