Insurance woes add insult to injury: The first in a two-part series highlighting Domestic Violence Awareness Month reveals a loophole in the state insurance laws that could prevent some battered women from receiving care.

Picture this scenario: A local woman suffers for years, being battered by her husband. She finally breaks free, works hard and makes a life for herself.

She works full-time, keeps up her health insurance premiums, and one day, finds herself being diagnosed with a chronic illness.

But that's OK, right? She's paid her premiums, so she'll be covered, won't she/

Not necessarily.

Oklahoma is one of only eight states in the nation that allows insurance companies to deny claims based on the "pre-existing condition" of being the victim of domestic violence.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and Oklahoma Sen. Jim Wilson, D-Tahlequah, believes it's time to close the loophole in the insurance law.

Last week, Wilson said he will introduce legislation for the upcoming session to prohibit health insurance companies from classifying domestic violence as a pre-existing condition.

Help-In-Crisis Executive Director Deana Franke is thrilled about the prospect.

"Our coalition just met in September, and we were going to ask for new legislation," said Franke. "I was really happy to find out that Jim [Wilson] had already taken the matter into his own hands, announcing that he'd already planned to change the law. I'm really proud he stepped up to do that."

According to Franke, most women who have been battered come to HIC with a number of problems -- just one of which can be insurance.

"Most abusers muck around in every aspect of their victims' lives," said Franke. "If a woman even has insurance, it's entirely possible her abuser has either canceled it, or dropped important coverage. Just about anything can happen."

Franke is also concerned about how medical records are tracked and documented.

"If a woman appears at a hospital battered, and her insurance is affected, it's just one more way the violence against women is supported," she said.

Franke understands that with the current economic situation, all businesses are looking to cut corners. But she believes the insurance companies should be held accountable for this mistake, as does Wilson.

"These women have already been victimized by their abuser, but here in Oklahoma, they can be victimized again by their own insurance company," said Wilson. "Maybe under current law it is legal for companies to do this, but that doesn't mean it's right. My legislation will close this loophole."

Under Wilson's legislation, no health benefit plan would be able to deny coverage or exclude any person from any health benefit plan on the basis of an individual's status as a victim of domestic abuse.

"Right now in Oklahoma, a woman with breast cancer can be denied coverage because, at some point in her life, she had been the victim of domestic violence," said Wilson. "She's being punished, denied access to health care, because she was the victim of a crime. That is unconscionable."

If approved, any insurance plan issued or renewed on or after Nov. 1, 2010, would be prohibited from considering domestic violence a pre-existing condition.

"This loophole doesn't exist in 42 other states," said Wilson. "It is my hope that members in both chambers will act quickly to pass this legislation on behalf of women and families in Oklahoma."

Franke, too, hopes the legislation passes, as many women who come to her agency are in dire need of medical services.

"We see a lot of mental health issues in our line of work," said Franke. "And with the state budget being stretched to the breaking point, mental health services on a local level are hard to come by. We have a few private practitioners, but they can't provide services for free, as they're facing just as many budget problems as anyone else."