Sensitivity Training: GOP Senator Batters Witness Over Domestic Violence Report

By Ryan Grim

The Huffington Post

After the Huffington Post reported that eight states still allow insurance companies to treat domestic violence as a precondition, leaders from three of those declared that they would put an end to the practice.

North Carolina Republican Senator Richard Burr took a different approach and instead challenged the head of the organization, the National Women's Law Center, that issued the original report at a Senate hearing Thursday.

Burr's reaction was the polar opposite of Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, who told the Jackson Free Press after the story broke that he was ashamed that his state was on the list.

"Would I do something about it? Hell, yeah, I'd do something about it, but I'm a regulator, not a legislator. I have to come to terms with that every week," he said, calling on the legislature to take action.

North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm, a former violent-crimes prosecutor, told the Huffington Post that he and Gov. John Hoeven (R) are working to change the standing policy in their state. "Quite frankly, I was stunned and I couldn't believe it," he said of North Dakota's inclusion on the list, vowing to change the law when the legislature comes back in session.

North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin similarly said that he would encourage the state legislature to clarify the law. The state does ban insurers from using domestic violence as a pre-existing condition within group plans, but is silent when it comes to individual and non-group plans. Following the story, Goodwin said that he would implement new rules and encourage the legislature to rectify the situation so that individual and non-group women were specifically protected, too. He also said that he had not found an example of any insurance company denying a woman coverage and citing domestic violence as the reason...(Remainder.)

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/16/sensitivity-training-gop_n_323714.html