Rape victims charged for rape kits

[Lindsey 0]

Just ran across this story. It never dawned on me that anyone besides the patient would be billed for their medical charges, regardless of how they were hurt. I mean, people who are assaulted in other ways are still responsible for the bill as far as I know. I'm not sure why it would be different in this situation. Thought it was kind of interesting in a SC kind of way. Thoughts?

What about the rest of the bill? There are often lacerations, x-rays and subsequent treatment for other injuries sustained. I wonder what it is about the rape kit itself.

linz

--
A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail

[mnealtx 0]

I can *sort* of see where it plays out for the hospital - they are collecting specimens and doing labwork, and the techs have to be paid.

The thought that the VICTIM would be charged for it, honestly, never crossed my mind.

This

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In order to qualify for federal grants under the Violence Against Women Act, states have to assume the full out-of-pocket costs for forensic medical exams, as the rape kits are called.

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is a good thing... but it looks like there's still problems with getting it implemented across the board.

Speaking solely for myself, I would prefer to see some sort of system in place where the victim can get any/all care that she needs WITHOUT having to pay a slim dime for it.

Mike
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[Lindsey 0]

Speaking solely for myself, I would prefer to see some sort of system in place where the victim can get any/all care that she needs WITHOUT having to pay a slim dime for it.

That's what was interesting to me. And sure, it would be nice, but somebody's going to pay, whether it's the woman, her insurance company, or tax dollars. I think most people's first reaction is that a woman should not be getting billed for emergency services after having been raped. But then I thought about a guy I saw recently whose hip was broken when another guy beat the living daylights out of him. That's not rape, and there's definitely a different quality to the kind of trauma one experiences in the two instances, but it's certainly nothing to thumb your nose at either. I'm sure he was billed by the orthopaedist who fixed his hip as well as by the ER.

Then just thinking of the sheer number of people who are treated emergently after being stabbed, shot, beaten, raped, or whatever. Are all of these visits paid for by the victim? I'm assuming so. I guess I found it to be odd that there's any issue with people being billed for a portion of the charges for a rape kit....what did they say....$600 of a $1600 charge? Sometimes it truly does suck, the things that happen to people. But I was sort of surprised that this is treated differently than other violent injuries. Or maybe there are grants or federal/state money set aside for all these other costs too. Hmm.

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[Squeak 17]

Move to OZ Linz
Emergency medical care is free in public hospitals

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[Lindsey 0]

Nevermind. I'm slow sometimes. Like my son frequently says, "I'm not retarded. I'm just slow." This isn't even ABOUT medical care. It's about collecting forensic evidence....which is what the rape kit is. It just happens to occur in the ER. THAT makes more sense to me.

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A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail

[SpeedRacer 1]

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Move to OZ Linz
Emergency medical care is free in public hospitals

how can medical care be free? someone has to pay for it.

Speed Racer
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[jcd11235 0]

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This isn't even ABOUT medical care. It's about collecting forensic evidence....which is what the rape kit is. It just happens to occur in the ER.

If viewed that way, wouldn't it make more sense to pay for it in the same manner as forensic departments are funded?

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[rehmwa 2]

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This isn't even ABOUT medical care. It's about collecting forensic evidence....which is what the rape kit is. It just happens to occur in the ER.

If viewed that way, wouldn't it make more sense to pay for it in the same manner as forensic departments are funded?

exactly - it's about solving the crime and should be in police budgets.

arguments about sympathy to the victim, or socialized medicine, etc have nothing to do with this topic and just bring up unrelated stuff

...
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[shropshire 0]

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Move to OZ Linz
Emergency medical care is free in public hospitals

how can medical care be free? someone has to pay for it.

In Oz, like the U,K, it's free at the point of delivery and that's very important. If people thought that theye were going to be charged for Emergency trestment then the may not go to hospital. Very bad idea.

For what it's worth I prefer our system.

(.)Y(.)
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[downwardspiral 0]

How are these kits preventing women from utilizing it as a tool for blackmail or other evil deeds? IF its free whats preventing an unscrupulous woman from giving it up and realizing the guy has lots of money so she goes to the ER to get the rape kit? It already happens today but with this kit they can avoid the media attention.

Just kinda thinking out loud here so don't think I'm against rape kits for pete's sake.

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[billvon 3,120]

> I would prefer to see some sort of system in place where the victim can
>get any/all care that she needs WITHOUT having to pay a slim dime for it.

I would too. The problem there is that gets you into who is "worthy" of free care and who isn't, and that's been the basis of a lot of arguments here.

[livendive 8]

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How are these kits preventing women from utilizing it as a tool for blackmail or other evil deeds? IF its free whats preventing an unscrupulous woman from giving it up and realizing the guy has lots of money so she goes to the ER to get the rape kit? It already happens today but with this kit they can avoid the media attention.

Just kinda thinking out loud here so don't think I'm against rape kits for pete's sake.

The rape exam itself deters some women from falsely claiming rape. A decent ER nurse trained in such things can usually tell if sex was not consensual. The kit itself is nothing but evidence collection supplies, no more devious than fingerprinting supplies. Generally speaking, the police are tasked with investigating evidence of criminal activity and funding such endeavors, and this wouldn't appear to be significantly different than other such investigations, i.e. they should pay for it. That said, I can see the exam being broken into a two different categories, investigative and medical, with the victim being responsible for the latter. I don't know...if a rapist gives a woman an STD, does it qualify as a seperate crime or as a punitive enhancement to a sentence? If so, then the cops should probably pay for the STD screens too. If not, then I wouldn't treat them as any different than X-rays on an assault victim.

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[Lindsey 0]

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How are these kits preventing women from utilizing it as a tool for blackmail or other evil deeds? IF its free whats preventing an unscrupulous woman from giving it up and realizing the guy has lots of money so she goes to the ER to get the rape kit? It already happens today but with this kit they can avoid the media attention.

Just kinda thinking out loud here so don't think I'm against rape kits for pete's sake.

This is no different than evidence collection for any crime, except for the fact that the evidence is collected by a physician, usually in the ER. That's what I didn't clue into very quickly...and thus this thread. Crime victims aren't typically billed for collectiion of evidence, so even though rape kits are done in the ER, there are some sort of provisions in place to have those costs covered by the state.

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[Jasmin 0]

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Move to OZ Linz
Emergency medical care is free in public hospitals

how can medical care be free? someone has to pay for it.

Yeah technically you're right, we aussies pay taxes and in return we don't have to pay (individually) for health care unless we choose to take out private health insurance and have the choice of being a private or publicly funded patient.

But then, you guys pay taxes and then you have to pay for your health care (individually) on top of that.

So I guess what squeak was trying to say is that both Americans and Australians pay taxes, but here in Australia you get your health cover thrown in for no extra cost.

xj

"I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with the earth...but then I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with a car either, and that's having tried both."

[Jasmin 0]

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I think most people's first reaction is that a woman should not be getting billed for emergency services after having been raped. But then I thought about a guy I saw recently whose hip was broken when another guy beat the living daylights out of him. That's not rape, and there's definitely a different quality to the kind of trauma one experiences in the two instances, but it's certainly nothing to thumb your nose at either.

Ok! [Preparing to wade into semantics arguement!]
There is a fundamental difference: one is a collection of evidence for the purposes of assisting police, the other is a medical treatment.

Your analogy would hold if we were comparing a woman requiring stitches due to a violent rape (not to mention therapy) and your friend who needed hip reconstruction due to assault. But we're not.

A rape kit does not treat you, it is for forensic purposes and if the victim is made to pay for this, she is essentially paying for police evidence gathering. If you want an analogy, its the equivalent of billing a person's estate for their autopsy if they're murdered.

For women without insurance or without $1.5-2K to spare, it also makes them less likely to report rape. Again, this doesn't really hold true for the analogy you gave.

If a society is serious about stopping crime, then it establishes and maintains investigative and enforcement bodies (ie courts, prisons, police, morgues, forensics etc) and more to the point, publicly funds them!!

I'd like to say this surpirses me, but it doesn't. It just me makes me even more glad I live in Australia, where health cover and rape kits are free (ie included in your taxes).

xj

"I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with the earth...but then I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with a car either, and that's having tried both."

[lawrocket 3]

I agree here. Obviously, what is occuring is, in a sense, a medical procedure. However, it is being done for investigation purposes.

Interesting subject.

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[DrewEckhardt 0]

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You guys have a top marginal tax rate of 45% versus
So I guess what squeak was trying to say is that both Americans and Australians pay taxes, but here in Australia you get your health cover thrown in for no extra cost.

Your marginal tax rates are 5-12% higher than ours which would be more than enough to pay for health insurance if our employer's didn't provide it as a benefit.

Example: earn $34K, pay 30% in Australia versus 25% in the US. Earn $80K pay 40% in Australia versus 28% in the US. Earn $180K pay 45% versus 33% in the US.

[Jasmin 0]

In terms of quality of life, I'd pick here over the US any day of the week.

Free medical care is just one tiny aspect of it.

We also have decent social security, so if you don't have a job/are injured/made redundant, you still get financial assistance (and there's no capped timeline on it) and more to the point, you and your entire family still get medical care.

So to bring it back to the original thread, you would never see a case of a woman being turned away from treatment and the use of a rape kit (or not having it done for fear of the cost) in Australia because it'd be automatically covered by the Govt.

And you've got to admit that not all US employers provide (full) health cover, particularly once you start factoring in 'casuals' etc so you're fine in the US as long as you're not in an unskilled position or unemployed.

I'd still rather pay slightly higher taxes and know that there's a medical and financial safety net if anything ever happens to me or my job; but that's just my $0.02!

xj

"I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with the earth...but then I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with a car either, and that's having tried both."

[jcd11235 0]

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And you've got to admit that not all US employers provide (full) health cover, particularly once you start factoring in 'casuals' etc so you're fine in the US as long as you're not in an unskilled position or unemployed.

Also to be considered are the cost (to Americans) of co-pays and deductibles.

At the end of the day, the fact of the matter is that the US pays more fore healthcare than anywhere else in the world, but is exceeded in healthcare quality by many other countries.

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[BIGUN 1,488]

Perp: You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one, one will be provided to you by the state. Do you understand these rights as I've read them to you?

Rape Victim: You have the right to be charged for a rape kit. C'mon!

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