Pre-existing conditions

In the USA, health insurance companies can currently refuse or limit the healthcare that they pay for if people have "pre-existing conditions". For example, if someone has cancer, insurance companies don't want to sign them up, because it is likely to be very expensive. But in eight states in the USA, "pre-existing conditions" don't just include illnesses like cancer or arthritis.

In Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming, one of the pre-existing conditions which can limit the healthcare people receive is being a "domestic violence victim".

As the Service Employees union, which is campaigning on this issue, says, "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."