Let's just come out and say it - the health care system in America has really seen better days. From insurers booting sick people to the curb to the elderly having to choose between food and much-needed prescription drugs, the States definitely lag behind the rest of the developed world in providing health care regardless of age or socioeconomic status.
Record numbers of Americans now go without health insurance altogether, while obesity is on the rise and healthy lifestyles are harder and harder to come by as dollar cheeseburgers become more appealing than healthy home-cooked meals amid the current economic turmoil.
This is all common knowledge. Watch any cable news channel for more than 10 minutes and it's clear that these are the issues people are talking about. But there are also stories out there that go untold, stories that frame the issues in the most appalling way.
We would like to draw your attention to Christina Tucker. What she went through is enough to make any woman think twice before accepting a drink from a stranger, but not necessarily for the obvious reasons.
Yes, 45-year-old Tucker went out on the town and was given drinks by two men. The drinks were drugged, and the men took her home and raped her. She doesn't remember what happened because she was unconscious, but she does remember waking up bruised and cut on the side of a Fort Lauderdale road the next morning.
Sounds like a cautionary tale of the worst that can happen to a woman on a night out. But the story does not end there.
Tucker wanted to make sure she was protected, so she decided to take a medication that would reduce her chances of contracting HIV from the encounter. She took the drugs for a month and never developed the virus.
But once she lost her insurance and had to apply for a new policy, the underwriters began digging into her past. They discovered her history with the antiviral drugs and started asking questions. Prying. Bringing her back to that night and those horrible memories. And after it was all finished, she was denied coverage.
They said she had a pre-existing condition. As if being raped was the same as having skin cancer or a heart condition. She was violated in the worst way possible and then forced to relive that experience - all for the ability to avoid going bankrupt if she ever had to go back to the hospital, for any reason.
We find this beyond appalling. As Obama's health care reform bill stalls in Congress, amid partisan bickering and filibustering, these insurance companies are getting away with treating people like Tucker like garbage.
And a more sickening fact is that Tucker is not alone. According to an investigative report by the Huffington Post, this is a widespread problem. Women who have histories of taking these kind of preventative drugs after sexual assaults not only have trouble securing coverage, but those who manage to get lucky enough to stay covered often face riders and exclusions on their policies that force them to pay out-of-pocket for such necessities as gynecological exams, reproductive care and emotional counseling. These women continue to be punished for something they didn't have anything to do with in the first place.
This is disgusting, and hopefully as the story of Tucker spreads and more women come forward with their stories, the frustratingly slow process of change will gain some momentum. Women in this country deserve it.
