Opinion: Forcing rape victims to pay for emergency medical care is devastating and cruel (via latimesopinion )
In the summer of 2021, a woman seeking an abortion came to the Texas clinic where I worked as a physician. She’d been raped and was 15 weeks pregnant. I was the first medical provider she had seen since being assaulted. She told me she hadn’t gone to the emergency room after her rape because she was uninsured and afraid of racking up a huge medical bill.
But a forensic exam is far from the only medical service rape victims need. They need medications to prevent serious sexually transmitted infections such as HIV, and sometimes they need repair of injuries such as vaginal or rectal lacerations. They often need mental health treatment and usually need emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy.Opinion: Violence against Black women and girls is underreported.
Though they make up less than 5% of L.A.’s population, Black women are far more likely to experience multiple forms of violence and trauma than other groups. Since the federal law doesn’t cover the full range of necessary services, getting them can be financially catastrophic for victims. As my colleagues and I reported in ain the New England Journal of Medicine, victims of sexual violence are often expected to pay for at least some of their care out of pocket, and that presents a powerful disincentive for women to seek care at a time they desperately need it.
We analyzed more than 35 million ER visits and identified 112,716 survivors of recent sexual assaults in 2019. More than 17,000 of the victims we identified were expected to pay out of pocket for their ER care; they were charged an average of $3,673. Even privately insured survivors paid, on average, 14% of the total costs of their ER care , because most private coverage carries copayments and deductibles, and many ERs are “out of network.
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