ACC-"Don't Worry, Its Not Our Money"
During the recent election campaign Labour and their union masters campaigned against National's plans to remove the Accident Compensation Corporation's monopoloy on accident insurance provision.
To me this move can't come fast enough. The sooner the private sector is allowed back into the accident insurace market the better.
I know a young woman who recently pinged her Achilles Tendon playing netball.
After several weeks off work, ACC decided she could come back to work for two hours per day.
The woman earns under $20 per hour. She lives about 30 kilometres from her workplace. Driving is not comfortable, busing is not convenient.
For those two hours per day (though she has done three or four some days) ACC (you and me) pays the woman's taxi fares to and from work.
That's $150 per day, $750 per week.
I wonder how often this kind of thing goes on?
Would a private company spend its own money this extravagantly?
To me this move can't come fast enough. The sooner the private sector is allowed back into the accident insurace market the better.
I know a young woman who recently pinged her Achilles Tendon playing netball.
After several weeks off work, ACC decided she could come back to work for two hours per day.
The woman earns under $20 per hour. She lives about 30 kilometres from her workplace. Driving is not comfortable, busing is not convenient.
For those two hours per day (though she has done three or four some days) ACC (you and me) pays the woman's taxi fares to and from work.
That's $150 per day, $750 per week.
I wonder how often this kind of thing goes on?
Would a private company spend its own money this extravagantly?
posted by Trevor Loudon at
11/16/2008 09:14:00 AM
4 Comments:
It goes on a lot – have you seen my blogs on my issues with ACC this year? They are tagged “car accident”.
I was seriously injured in a car accident in March and despite being listed as "high priority" I am not having surgery to replace the two stuffed discs in my neck until 9 Dec!
Count the months the taxpayer has been footing my 80% income and then think about the impact on my life of living with this injury.
The delay, caused almost entirely by ACC taking forever to stamp the paperwork, has meant that the months of me taking piles and piles of pain drugs which you are not supposed to take long term has caused medical problems for me that landed me in hospital only a month ago requiring test after test to see which parts of my body have been damaged by the drugs – more taxpayer money caused by the inefficiency of the public system!
Another gripe is that I have to go with ACC because of how NZ is but they don’t pay me the 100% I am losing, they don’t cover my doctors visits and osteo treatment to help cope with the pain and worse of all they do not hold the person who caused the accident to account.
I bet if it was private I would be being looked after better because someone with an eye on the costs would see that it did not make financial sense to be this slow and there would be some justice in terms of the woman who caused my injuries who wasn’t even charged.
PS. Any chance you could please update your link to MandM to our correct url? The old one still works but having people linking to it is mucking up our stats. :-)
This is a private (not state run blog)which cares about its readers.
So you don't go elsewhere Madeleine I have sorted out your problem straight away.
What a simple concept!
LOL - please tell me you mean you have sorted out my ACC problem...
Thanks :-)
I bet the taxi driver aint complaning.
Dirk
Whats with the wheelchair sign. You got a mobility park there?
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