Lapsed Modernist

Rape is a preexisting condition!

Did y'all know that?

Christina Turner feared that she might have been sexually assaulted after two men slipped her a knockout drug. She thought she was taking proper precautions when her doctor prescribed a month's worth of anti-AIDS medicine.

Only later did she learn that she had made herself all but uninsurable.

Turner had let the men buy her drinks at a bar in Fort Lauderdale. The next thing she knew, she said, she was lying on a roadside with cuts and bruises that indicated she had been raped. She never developed an HIV infection. But months later, when she lost her health insurance and sought new coverage, she ran into a problem.

Turner, 45, who used to be a health insurance underwriter herself, said the insurance companies examined her health records. Even after she explained the assault, the insurers would not sell her a policy because the HIV medication raised too many health questions. They told her they might reconsider in three or more years if she could prove that she was still AIDS-free.

Stories of how victims of sexual assault can get tangled in the health insurance system have been one result of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund's citizen journalism project, which is calling on readers to provide information and anecdotes about the inner workings of the insurance industry. The project aims to uncover details and data that can inform the larger debate over how to fix the nation's health care system. As the Investigative Fund reported in September, health insurance companies are not required to make public their records on how often claims are denied and for what reasons.

Some women have contacted the Investigative Fund to say they were deemed ineligible for health insurance because they had a pre-existing condition as a result of a rape, such as post traumatic stress disorder or a sexually transmitted disease. Other patients and therapists wrote in with allegations that insurers are routinely denying long-term mental health care to women who have been sexually assaulted...

...A 38-year-old woman in Ithaca, N.Y., said she was raped last year and then penalized by insurers because in giving her medical history she mentioned an assault she suffered in college 17 years earlier. The woman, Kimberly Fallon, told a nurse about the previous attack and months later, her doctor's office sent her a bill for treatment. She said she was informed by a nurse and, later, the hospital's billing department that her health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, not only had declined payment for the rape exam, but also would not pay for therapy or medication for trauma because she "had been raped before."

Fallon says she now has trouble getting coverage for gynecological exams. To avoid the hassle of fighting with her insurance company, she goes to Planned Parenthood instead and pays out of pocket.

How it is possible that I don't have a fever, yet feel totally in throes of a fever. That feeling that your skin burns and hurts and the chills coming from this deep internal sense that your body is unable to regulate its temperature. But (I don't have a thermometer handy), my forehead and cheeks feel cool and normal.

near Ms Palindrome's house in Bed-Stuy

On Saturday I went to the nearby thrifstore that has a small selection of totally random books in English; sometimes they have decent selections. This time around I picked up "Blue Highways" that I read excerpts from in A.P. English back in high school, and I think I might appreciate it more now, and, remembering the advice of d_aulnoy--Judith Krantz's "I'll Take Manhattan." I hope to post my impressions soon.

Also I am going to do another print sale soon. Stay tuned.

Fionn just sang along with Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Then we listened to the Beatles and he gurgled on request.

Oh, when we were listening to "Imagine" at the point where John Lennon sings "and no religion, too" Fionn shook his head emphatically and said "no religion."

I forgot to mention this the other day--on Saturday before I went to meet congogirl in Liege, I popped into the cell phone store to buy credits for my empty SIM card. I ended up finally figuring out that cell phones without contract can be bought very cheaply here, and paid 20 EU for a brand new cell phone that I will keep using with prepaid cards, as my old phone was on the verge of expiring and "searched" for network for a very long time any time if was turned on.

Anyway, so I asked the store clerk whether they had some sort of environmentally safe recycling protocol for old disused cell phones, as obviously I didn't want to just throw it into the garbage/have it dumped in a landfill. He said: "well, you could send it to the Third World [sic]." I said "um, no, actually waste transfer from 'recycled' electronics is a huge environmental problem in developing nations." He--who had just gotten done describing to me everything that was legitimately wrong with my 4-year old phone--said: "no, you see, they don't have anything there, so even if it doesn't work, they will just be happy to have something in their hand."

Does it seem to anyone else that the theme in the credits for "Dollhouse" sounds a bit like a variation on the opening credits theme from Angel? Especially the beginning(s)?

Against all odds, the weather continues to be beautiful...I wait for the weather to turn rainy and gray any day but so far it's just the beautiful autumnal sun, and I can still sit barefoot in the garden. Yesterday Fionn and I went to visit my friend S. who has the cute twins. Over the summer she built a little hen coop in her garden, where the two hens cohabitate with a giant bunny. We let Fionn into the coop, where he successfully pet the hens and spent some time chasing after the bunny, who was scared at first but then let Fionn pet him a few times. S. also installed a hammock where her kids' swings used to be, and Fionn and Twin #1 (Pax) were rocked in it for a while, like two little fishies in a net. All was good except Pax, with a naughty expression, kept trying to poke his fingers into Fionn's eyes. Behold:







Eventually they were separated.



S. is also now basically in charge of running the free store at the big squat, and she has all these ideas of how to make it a nicer space, I might pop in there on Wednesday to help her sort and hang some stuff.

Then in the afternoon/evening I went to Liege to meet congogirl, who was in Brussels for 24 hours.



The advantage of living close to Brussels is that I get to see my friends who work in Africa, because they so often get routed through Brussels on their leaves or business trips to the US. We wandered around Liege (and were creeped out by the fact that all of the Congo-related places, like little money shops to send remittances and Congolese hair products were on Rue Leopold), installed outselves in a cafe by the river, where I consumed a deliciuos banana milkshake and congogirl seemed to confuse the owner by ordering cognac and crepes, then we launched an eventually successful search for moules frittes (mussels with fries)--yummy, garlicy, buttery--delicious!

( a few more from Liege )

Now I am awake, Fionn and I are both eating greek yogurt and honey, and later today I am going to go to the huge fleamarket that takes place a couple of times a year in the big expo building. Wish me some good finds!

some more photos of Fionn and his playmate/our next-door neighbor. (Explanatory note: there is a large clearing that is immediately outside our back yard gate, that is, essentially, enclosed by the rows of houses and the pathways running along them, so it's like a common space for the houses in the vicinity, and kids usually play there when the weather is nice; that's where they are hanging out.







Fionn: future basketball star?!



here he is studying the map of our city, pointing out the train station



they are both delighted



little feet, big feet



( more fun with the mirror )