On Air America's "The Ron Reagan Show" last night, host Reagan and SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger discussed the outrageous practice of insurance companies denying healthcare coverage to victims of domestic violence. "This is outrageous that women who are victims of domestic violence can't have health coverage," Burger said. Listen to the interview here.

If you're shaking your head at disbelief at the discovery that insurance companies can deny coverage to victims of spousal abuse by citing the injuries sustained through abuse as a "pre-existing condition," you're not alone. This takes "protecting their profits" to a whole new inhumane level. How can this heartless profit-mongering by some of this country's biggest insurance companies even be legal, you may be wondering. We believe in giving credit where credit is due, so we're going to tell you.

Back in 2006, a group of ten Republican Senators voted against an amendmentthat would have stopped health insurance companies' despicable practice of denying coverage to women because of domestic abuse. Another scary thought to add to the docket: all these GOP lawmakers (Alexander, Burr, Ensign, Enzi, Ensign, Gregg, Hatch, Isakson, Roberts and Sessions) still serve in the Senate today, with the exception of Bill Frist, who retired in 2007.

"These are some of the same people who say on we should just take more time [on passing health reform], have a debate," said Anna Burger. "Well, they could have stopped this practice years ago. They could stop it today. They could step up and do the right thing for people in America." Tell members of Congress to step up and get this done--because no one should be denied health care coverage, least of all women who have already endured so much.

Today is Day Two of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy hearings, where Rep. Kucinich and the other committee Representatives will hear from insurance company executives beginning at 2 PM. We'll hear from execs from UnitedHealthOne, Wellpoint, Aetna, Humana and CIGNA Healthcare. We'll be live tweeting from the hearing, as well as reporting on what went down after it's over -- follow SEIU on Twitter here.

« Additional information and ways you can take action on the SEIU Blog here.

« Check out these videos of insurance industry whistleblowers testifying today on the denial of coverage by insurance companies to bolster their profits.