Skip to content
Surprising Science

Rape Insurance? No Way

Insurance companies deny raped women cover due to ‘pre-existing condition’ of post-assault HIV fears and post-traumatic stress.
Sign up for Smart Faster newsletter
The most counterintuitive, surprising, and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

An insurance firm denied 45-year-old Christina Turner cover after she was raped by two men who drugged her and left her lying battered on the roadside. She was prescribed anti-AIDS medicine by her doctor and never developed HIV, but when her health insurance expired she was told her medication raised too many health questions, according to a report in The Huffington Post. Reporters found: “Some women have contacted the [The Huffington Post] to say they were deemed ineligible for health insurance because they had a pre-existing condition as a result of a rape, such as post traumatic stress disorder or a sexually transmitted disease. Other patients and therapists wrote in with allegations that insurers are routinely denying long-term mental health care to women who have been sexually assaulted.”

Sign up for Smart Faster newsletter
The most counterintuitive, surprising, and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

Related

Up Next