Raped in the Military? You'll Have to Pay for Your Own Forensic Exam Kit

[babylonsister]

Raped in the Military? You'll Have to Pay for Your Own Forensic Exam Kit

By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted November 11, 2008.

This outrage gives "supporting the troops" a whole new meaning.


Sarah Palin's decision not to pay for rape kits when she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, was an issue in the campaign for the White House. But allow me to introduce the large pink elephant that has been sitting quietly in the corner of the room: TRICARE, the Pentagon's Military Health System that covers active duty members, doesn't pay for rape kits, either.

Spec. Patricia McCann, who served in Iraq with the Illinois Army National Guard from 2003 to 2004, raised the issue at the Winter Soldier Investigation in March. McCann read a memo issued to all MEDCOM commanders clarifying that "SAD kits" -- which are forensic rape kits -- "are not included in TRICARE coverage."

That would put Alaska and the military in a very special category.

Women in the military are twice as likely to be raped as their civilian counterparts. In fact, "women serving in the U.S. military today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq," Congresswoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., told the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs in May.

Harman said, "The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus for me during a visit to the West Los Angeles VA Health Center where I met female veterans and their doctors. My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41 percent of the female veterans seen there say they were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military, and 29 percent said they were raped during their military service."

more...

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/106307/raped_in_the_military_you%27ll_have_to_pay_for_your_own_forensic_exam_kit/?page=entire

[Lost-in-FL]

1. It is always assumed that rape is the female soldier's fault.

We always told each other not to walk by yourself near the Military Police barracks. What happened there, stayed there.

[Solly Mack]

2. Didn't cover domestic assaults either

Federal Register,Proposed Rules, John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007; Authorization of Forensic Examinations


The proposed change...

Military Insurance (TRICARE) proposes to cover post-assault exams

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Did Sarah Palin have anything to do with this rule??

[babylonsister]

5. I'm sure not; just Tricare trying to save a buck. I wonder who

comes up with the priorities list.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. This is what I was suspecting. n/t

[gratuitous]

4. This was an issue in the campaign?

Boy, it sure escaped my notice! I knew that Mayor Palin wanted to charge rape victims for part of the cost of the police investigation, but that's only because I check things out here at DU. I sure as the world never saw this raised as an issue during the campaign, and nobody among the talking chuckleheads had the temerity or bad manners to ask Mrs. Palin about it directly. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have answered, but at least the question should have been asked once during her nine weeks in the public eye, doncha think?

[14thColony]

6. I'm a little confused

I'm an active-duty member of the US military,and have been for nearly 20 years. I have never used Tricare for myself, ever. If I get sick or injured I go to the base clinic or hospital, which is not part of or administered by Tricare - Tricare is the military's HMO which would cover me if I were somewhere I had no access to a military medical facility.

So is this saying that active duty soldiers are having claims for rape kits denied by Tricare? But if they're active duty or reservists/Guardsmen on EAD or federal orders, and being treated at a military medical facility, then why is Tricare even in the picture? I cannot imagine the SFs/MPs or OSI/CID is billing Tricare for an active status military member's criminal investigation. Is that what this is saying?

But if it's a situation where the investigation is being carried out by a local PD or state prosecutor's office, then what are they doing billing the victim at all, aside from Palin's Wasilla AK, that is?

This is confusing to say the least. Can anyone clarify?

[Cid_B]

7. I'm getting a whiff of BS on this one...

[babylonsister]

8. Active duty military don't always have access to military facilities.

And given the seriousness of the crime, I can imagine someone wanting to get to the nearest hospital or emergency room.

[14thColony]

9. But then it goes back to the whole Wasilla thing...

The issue there was that this was an exception to the norm - that practically all police departments pay for rape kits just like they pay for all supplies used by their CSI people. So basically this affects military members who have to go to a civilian medical facility in a jurisdiction that bills the victim for the criminal investigation into their own attack? While certainly not right by any means, I can't imagine this affects very many people. Of course I think one is still one too many, but is this just a tempest in a teapot?