As If Being Abused Wasn't Difficult Enough...

Whether you agree or not with President Obama's health care bill, the enormity of what he is trying to accomplish should be blatantly obvious to even the densest of individuals. With that being said, because of the size and scale of this effort, certain aspects of this debate unfortunately get lost in the shuffle. However, as this drama plays out on stage right in front of this, a few of the villainous characters (and their unscrupulous behaviors) are coming out from underneath the shadows. Let's take a look at various aspects of this "performance":

Cast of Characters and some of their memorable quotes:
1. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN): "Thumbing their nose at the American people by ramming through a partisan bill would be the same thing as going to war without asking Congress' permission."
2. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC): "The federal government taking over a larger piece of the health care pie would be devastating long term to innovation and to the quality of care that the American people are accustomed to."
3. Sen. John Ensign (R-NV): When discussing the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Ensign remarked that "They get better health care than the average American citizen does".
4. Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY): "If I hadn't been involved in this process as long as I have and to the depth as I have, you would already have national health care...It's not where I get them to compromise, it's what I get them to leave out."
5. Former Sen. William Frist (R-TN): "Let's face it, in a country as productive and advanced as ours, every American deserves affordable access to health care delivered at the right time. And they don't have it today."
6. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH): "Health care affects each person in our country on a personal level. Here in New Hampshire and throughout our country, families are worried about whether they will be able to pay for routine care, such as doctor checkups or prescription medication, not to mention how they would pay for unexpected large medical costs, such as a life threatening illness or injury. They are concerned about how to afford staying healthy or how to cope with medical bills that could bankrupt their families."
7. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT): In a response letter to President Obama's speech on health care earlier this month, Hatch admitted that "No American should be denied coverage or care simply because of a pre-existing condition".
8. Sen. John Isakson (R-GA): "State or regional exchanges would not be allowed to discriminate based on pre-existing conditions." In Isakson's response letter to President Obama's address, he commented that "In Washington, the devil is always in the details".
9. Sen. Patrick Roberts (R-KS): From his web site, "Roberts believes guaranteeing access to health insurance for all Americans should include preventing health insurers from denying coverage for people with pre-existing conditions".
10. Sen. Jefferson Sessions (R-AL): From his campaign web site, "Access to quality health care represents a large and growing burden on the American people".

Storyline:
As you can see from the quotes above, these ten old and white members of Congress criticize President Obama's proposed plan to reform health care because they truly have the well being of all Americans in mind. However, I am starting to think otherwise. In 2006, Sen. Patricia Murray (D-WA), a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, proposed an amendment to the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act. The act itself was introduced "to expand health care access and reduce costs through the creation of small business health plans and through modernization of the health insurance marketplace". And the amendment, you ask? This little piece of legislation would have prohibited insurance companies from ignoring state laws providing protection to victims of domestic violence, specifically in regards to denying insurance coverage to those victims. Why is such an amendment necessary? Because in seven states (Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming) and Washington, D.C., insurance companies are permitted to classify domestic violence as a pre-existing condition. An eighth state (North Carolina) forbids classifying domestic violence as a pre-existing condition for group insurance plans but not for individual or non-group plans.

It is important to point out that, according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, domestic violence is one of the most powerful predictors of increased health care utilization. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that this serious public health issue affects more than thirty-two million Americans, or more than ten percent of the population. And although I certainly understand that men can be victims of domestic abuse, let's just take a look at the statistics on domestic violence against women for convenience sake. An estimated two to four million women are physically abused every year in the U.S., which translates into a woman being battered every eighteen seconds. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that women are about six times as likely as men to suffer violence from an intimate partner. Finally, the National Family Violence Surveys have reported that women experience a violent act by an intimate partner at an annual rate of 116 per every 1,000 women.

Plot Twist:
Despite the focus of the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act, the bill (and, in turn, the amendment regarding domestic violence) did not pass. The irony of the situation is that the original sponsor of the bill (Sen. Enzi) and several of the co-sponsors (Sen. Burr and Sen. Roberts) decided to vote against the legislation.