Bill Text: HI HR28 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Health Insurers; Domestic Violence as Pre-existing Condition

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-09 - (H) Referred to HLT/HUS, CPC, referral sheet 23 [HR28 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2010-HR28-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	28
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2010
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

urging congress to support federal legislation prohibiting health insurers from denying coverage to victims of domestic violence on the grounds that it is a pre-existing condition.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, anyone of any race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender can be subject to domestic violence; and

 

     WHEREAS, domestic violence can occur between couples who are married, living together, or who are dating; and

 

     WHEREAS, domestic violence affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels; and

 

     WHEREAS, about one out of every four women in the country will be physically assaulted or raped by an intimate partner at some point in their lives and are more likely to be assaulted, injured, raped, or killed by a male partner than by any other type of assailant; and

 

     WHEREAS, estimates of assaults on women by partners range from approximately two to four million annually in the United States; and

 

     WHEREAS, the majority of women killed at work are murdered by a current or former intimate partner; and

 

     WHEREAS, it has been a common practice among health insurers to deny coverage to victims of domestic abuse on the grounds that domestic violence is a "pre-existing condition"; and

 

     WHEREAS, it is not uncommon for victims of domestic violence to not report incidents of domestic violence for fear of losing their health insurance coverage; and

 

     WHEREAS, according to the National Women's Law Center, although forty-two states have enacted laws to prohibit health insurers from classifying domestic violence as a "pre-existing condition", Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia have not; and

 

     WHEREAS, a more comprehensive solution requires federal legislation to ban this unfair practice to provide victims of domestic violence with health care coverage; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2010, that Congress is urged to support federal legislation prohibiting health insurers from denying coverage to victims of domestic violence by classifying domestic violence as a pre-existing condition; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Health Insurers; Domestic Violence as Pre-existing Condition