(Bloomberg) — Sexual assault and rape victims seeking care in US emergency rooms face costly medical bills, in spite of a federal law meant to defray these types of expenses.
(Bloomberg) — Sexual assault and rape victims seeking care in US emergency rooms face costly medical bills, in spite of a federal law meant to defray these types of expenses.
On average, survivors of sexual assault saw emergency bills of $3,551, according to a study published Wednesday by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Hunter College. Charges were even higher for uninsured patients or pregnant survivors, who saw bills average $4,553.
“It’s a scandal that you’ve been assaulted and to no fault of your own you have to seek medical care and then you are held responsible for the cost of that medical care,” said Steffie Woolhandler, a distinguished professor of public health at Hunter College and medical researcher on the study. Other developed nations such as Canada have some form of national health insurance, and medical care for sexual assault survivors is either completely free at the time of use or very inexpensive, she added.
The researchers analyzed a sample of more than 35 million emergency visits in the US in 2019, of which more than 112,000 were for care after sexual assault.
The landmark Violence Against Women Act, which became US law in 1994, in part regulated medical costs in cases of sexual abuse and assault, and paid for evidence gathering for victims, such as rape kits. But associated treatments and medical fees can balloon costs. For example, there’s no program in place to cover medication for sexually transmitted infections or broken bones or bruises, Woolhandler said.
Moreover, some survivors experience unwanted pregnancies following their abuse, and treatments like abortion have become increasingly difficult, and practically impossible in some parts of the country, since the US Supreme Court overturned abortion protections from Roe v. Wade in June.
Of the 112,716 sexual assault survivors that sought emergency medical care for which the researchers had data, nearly nine out of 10 were women. Some 38% were children under the age of 18, according to the study.
While almost 44% of American women report to have been a victim of sexual violence at some point in their lifetime, according to the study, only 25% of victims seek medical care.
The threat of high medical bills may be why they don’t.
“By sending people these large bills you’re going to discourage them from seeking medical care, actually worsening their consequences of the assault itself,” said Woolhandler.
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