Last week, the Huffington Post made our blood boil when they reported on a horrifying trend—that insurance companies are denying benefits for women who’ve been raped, and even dropping their coverage altogether. How can they get away with such a thing? Because, when a woman is raped and it’s unknown whether the assailant used a condom, doctors typically prescribe a month’s worth of an anti-HIV medication (which, uh, I didn’t even know existed) as a precaution. It’s extremely rare that a woman actually contracts HIV this way, but insurance companies view this as a morbid done deal. Susan Pisano, a spokeswoman for the health insurance industry’s largest trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, explains, “If you put down on a form that you are or were taking anti-HIV drugs at any time, [insurance companies] are going to understand that you are or were in treatment for HIV, period. That could be a factor in determining whether you get coverage.”

Kristin Davis is launching a fashion line in association with Belk, a department store chain, where she shopped growing up. “It was the nicest store we had, and I’d save my allowance to go to Belk.” [AHN]

 

What’s sexier than a security blanket? Pretty much everything.  But that hasn’t stopped the insurance industry from trying to loosen its image.  Sexy Insurance, a new networking site catering to insurance industry professionals, is giving MySpace a run for its edgy market share. Instead of Tom, they’ve got Sean, a self-proclaimed “refugee” of the biz, who runs the site out of his basement.  His icon is an image of billionaire Warren Buffet with a speech bubble that says “I’m so sexy it hurts!” There are profiles, a following obsessed with The Office, a lounge for playing Donkey Kong, and a hilarious lo-fi video featuring 50 Cent “Fitty & Warren”. Although the new page is cool, the constant stream of new-age world music supposed to sex up the site really just makes us never want to date an agent—even if they’ll give us a discount on medical care. [Ad Freak]