No More Duck and Cover: Preventing Domestic Violence in the New Health Law

Written by Sally Schaeffer, Futures Without Violence

While the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization has been stalled in Congress this year, how about a bit of good news for women who care about stopping this kind of violence?

Starting next week on August 1st, a new women’s health provision that was part of the new health care law,  the Affordable Care Act , will take effect. It ensures that women and adolescent girls receive annual preventive health services with no co-pays. Among the services that will be covered by new insurance plans (and eventually, existing plans), are screening and counseling for domestic and interpersonal violence. This means that women and girls who have been hurt by violence and abuse will be far more likely to get help and also receive better health care because providers will know more about how to help them get healthy and be safe.

Importantly, screening and counseling by a health provider has been shown to make a difference in health outcomes for women. One study found that when screening is coupled with education, harm reduction and referrals to domestic and sexual assault services, violence can be reduced and the health status of women improved. Research has also shown that there are no harmful effects of screening and that women usually appreciate being asked and given the chance to get help as long as it’s done in a supportive way.

Yolanda’s story also reminds us of why this provision is so important. As a young mother of three, Yolanda found herself in an abusive marriage. Her husband was frequently violent, and one night punched her in the face and split her lip, which sent her to the emergency room. As she sat on the examination table, the physician who was stitching her lip asked: “Who did this to you?” Yolanda mustered her courage and quietly said: “My husband.” The physician responded by telling her she needed to learn how to duck better.

Yolanda spent the next several years learning how to duck before finally leaving that abusive relationship. Empowered by her experience, she went to medical school, became a doctor, and now teaches students at a prestigious university the importance of identifying and treating domestic violence and sexual assault.

Thanks to dramatic health care reforms like the new health care law, as well as the hard work of advocates and health care providers over the last 20 years, we’re pretty confident that Yolanda’s ER doctor today would be more attentive to her needs, and would refer her to the appropriate community and health services.

But we need to be sure that’s the case and that is why these new provisions are so important. The new health care lawtakes an important step to pro-actively encourage health care providers to better identify the signs of domestic and interpersonal violence, and it features important provisions for health insurance companies so that they can no longer deny coverage to a woman based simply on a history of domestic violence. This is a part of health care reform we call can be proud of.

For more information on the importance of intimate partner violence screening and counseling, please visit the Futures Without Violence website.