Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Amy J who wrote (179482)	9/28/2004 5:24:01 PM
From: brushwud	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

a doctor had short post mortem depression from giving birth. She never had a single incident of this in her life, but she is now prohibited from getting insurance - every carrier has declined her because of this single short incident that was due to giving birth. Are you saying she killed her baby? Because "post mortem" means after death. many women hightech consultants are not able to get individual insurance from the major providers due to a gender specific condition such as post-mortem depression from giving birth. How did you come to the conclusion that "post mortem" depression is exclusive to women? Believe it or not, many men get post mortem depression after the death of a spouse. Or are you talking about women who abort their babies? One of the significant risks is post mortem depression, and doctors should make this clear before performing such an elective procedure.

To: Amy J who wrote (179482)	9/28/2004 7:05:32 PM
From: Saturn V	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 186894

Health Insurance Mess I think that the Health Insurance is a mess. You have a bias that everytime a woman has a medical insurance problem, it must because of a conspiracy of gender discrimination. I am familiar with plenty of insurance horror stories even with men, even though men tend to be macho, and do not vent their frustrations with the system. California Law requires that the employer provide a choice of insurance carriers. I believe that is enough. An individual buying insurance on the open market is going to get a terrible deal with dozens of exclusions based upon the medical history. Your story of a woman being excluded because she had post partum depression (and not post mortem depression), is specific to women. But individual health insurance policies are riddled with exclusions for "pre existing conditions". That means any test in your medical history for "any condition" , will be used as an excuse for a "pre existing condition exclusion" even thought that test might be negative. I agree that the clerk analyzing the insurance application form should have enough intelligence to distinguish between post partum depression, and other more deadly forms of psycological depression. Such "intelligent clerks" run the health insurance system ! Most likely a text based search engine analyzes the medical history of the potential applicant, and makes coverage decisions. The medical profession has also been guilty of being blind to women's heart disease symptoms. However this occurred not because of gender bias, but because of gender neutrality. The medical profession assumed that since the heart did not have any connection with the reproductive and sexual organs, heart disease would be identical in males and females. And since men provided the largest sample of heart disease victims, it was natural to base medical treatments based upon the the huge empirical evidence based upon men. Only in the last decade heart disease amongst women has been recognized as a big health risk and has been studied better. It has finally been noted that when it comes to the heart, men and women are indeed different.