Being a victim of rape costs an average of $3,500 in medical bills, study finds

According to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, victims of sexual assaults in the US can incur large hospital bills if they seek emergency medical care.

As a result of sexual violence, hospital emergency departments charged more for urgent medical care. The bills for people who were sexually assault while pregnant were much higher. Uninsured victims or those who chose to pay themselves had to pay an average of $3,663 in bills. The study found that victims who had private insurance paid an average of 14 percent of their bills out-of-pocket.

The authors caution that emergency department charges may discourage the reporting of rape. The charges may further harm survivors, even those with full insurance coverage, by serving to reveal a potentially stigmatizing event to parents, partners, or employers. It is possible that the bills will traumatize survivors by suggesting that they are responsible for their assault.

The study was conducted by researchers from across the country, including at the University of California, Los Angeles, Harvard University, and City University of New York.

Steep price

35,807,950 hospital-based visits to emergency departments were looked at by the team. There were at least one diagnostic codes for sexual violence on some visits.

There were more than 112,000 emergency department visits related to sexual assault. The majority of the victims were women. The majority of people were between the ages of 18 and 44 years old.

Rape kits and physical injuries can be treated in an emergency care visit. Diagnostic testing, treatment to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, emergency contraception, and counseling are available.

Medicaid was expected to pay for 36 percent of the victims. More than 17,000 victims were expected to pay their hospital bills on their own.

The 1994 The Violence Against Women Act mandates that women shouldn't be charged for evidence collection during their post- assault medical care, but that is not always followed. They said that the VAWA should cover treatment as well. Universal health care coverage is needed to ensure that costs are not a barrier to essential medical care and forensic evaluation in cases of sexual assault.