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GoonSquad
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23 Oct 2015, 12:37 pm

The most recent milestone in America's relentless march toward the 19th century...

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Over the past decade, state after state has been dismantling America’s workers’ comp system with disastrous consequences for many of the hundreds of thousands of people who suffer serious injuries at work each year, a ProPublica and NPR investigation has found.
The cutbacks have been so drastic in some places that they virtually guarantee injured workers will plummet into poverty. Workers often battle insurance companies for years to get the surgeries, prescriptions and basic help their doctors recommend.

...

The changes, often passed under the banner of “reform,” have been pushed by big businesses and insurance companies on the false premise that costs are out of control.
In fact, employers are paying the lowest rates for workers’ comp insurance since the 1970s. And in 2013, insurers had their most profitable year in over a decade, bringing in a hefty 18 percent return.

...

Among the findings:

Since 2003, legislators in 33 states have passed workers’ comp laws that reduce benefits or make it more difficult for those with certain injuries and diseases to qualify for them. Florida has cut benefits to its most severely disabled workers by 65 percent since 1994.

Where a worker gets hurt matters. Because each state has developed its own system, an amputated arm can literally be worth two or three times as much on one side of a state line than the other. The maximum compensation for the loss of an eye is $27,280 in Alabama, but $261,525 in Pennsylvania.

Many states have not only shrunk the payments to injured workers, they’ve also cut them off after an arbitrary time limit — even if workers haven’t recovered. After John Coffell hurt his back at an Oklahoma tire plant last year, his wages dropped so dramatically that he and his family were evicted from their home.

Employers and insurers increasingly control medical decisions, such as whether an injured worker needs surgery. In 37 states, workers can’t pick their own doctor or are restricted to a list provided by their employers.

In California, insurers can now reopen old cases and deny medical care based on the opinions of doctors who never see the patient and don’t even have to be licensed in the state. Joel Ramirez, who was paralyzed in a warehouse accident, had his home health aide taken away, leaving him to sit in his own feces for up to eight hours.



http://www.propublica.org/article/the-d ... mpensation

Welcome to the new Gilded Age.


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glebel
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23 Oct 2015, 12:49 pm

Whereas the total dismantling of workman's comp shouldn't happen, we do need to address the gross abuses of the system. Tort Law reform would be a good start. This could stop frivolous lawsuits, thus lessening the number of suits going through the system. This would speed up the legal process and allow the legal system to investigate cases more thoroughly, and hopefully more fairly.


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GoonSquad
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23 Oct 2015, 1:01 pm

^^^ As a rule, firms who participte in worker's comp are immune from injury lawsuits. That's not why firms/state are opting out.

This is about greed, pure and simple.

Misconceptions like yours make it much easier though...


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24 Oct 2015, 11:59 am

Healthcare is VERY expensive.

Has anyone other than me come to the conclusion that the actual cost of healthcare is the issue?
It's always "We've got to do something to cover the rising cost of healthcare!! ! Raise taxes, force employers to cover thier employees whether they can afford it or not!! ! People are dying in the streets because they can't afford healthcare!! ! Whaaa, whaaa, whaaa :cry: " etc, etc. ad nauseam.

Even as a hate-filled, greedy, hard hearted conservative who is generally against regulation and bumbling government meddling I'm more in favor of putting price caps on ALL medical services over a certain dollar amount than trying to keep up with the costs with even more government meddling to the same effect as a dog chasing his tail.

It would be quite a task to hash out all the details and itemize everything then actually enforce it but it's got to be better than the current approach of cost chasing. Why are people so feeble minded that they are intimidated by the medical profession (industry) to the point that they won't question the cost of services they are expected to pay? I have no such inhibitions.


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envirozentinel
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24 Oct 2015, 12:33 pm

Yeah, agree: medical costs never seem to be questioned and yet keep rising. They are usually exorbitant even allowing for the expense of procedures etc.

By the way Raptor I don't think you're as hard hearted as you try to make out! Anyone who cares for animals as you do can't be. If only you could see what the Republicans are trying to do to your country as they are the ones who seem to be screwing the workers and the health care system since they seem to be totally on the side of big business!


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Raptor
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24 Oct 2015, 1:00 pm

envirozentinel wrote:
By the way Raptor I don't think you're as hard hearted as you try to make out!

Yeah but it's become just plain enjoyable to be thought of as hard hearted, evil, greedy, trollish, dickish, and jack-ass-ish by the more hissy liberals (or anyone else) in need of something that passes for an actual purpose in life. :D

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Anyone who cares for animals as you do can't be.

That's mostly dogs that I care for. Other animals (and people) fall in somewhere behind dogs in my mind.

Quote:
If only you could see what the Republicans are trying to do to your country as they are the ones who seem to be screwing the workers and the health care system since they seem to be totally on the side of big business!

Both parties are out for themselves. Period.
It's only a matter of which one each individual finds less repugnant.
I do not worship the GOP (or any other party) and could write page after page sharply criticising it.


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glebel
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24 Oct 2015, 1:03 pm

What is screwing up the U.S. is all the politiciansand Big Business. You can't separate either of the two main parties from each other nor from corporations. They are just different facets of the Powers-That-Be.


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GoonSquad
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24 Oct 2015, 1:10 pm

Raptor wrote:
Healthcare is VERY expensive.

Has anyone other than me come to the conclusion that the actual cost of healthcare is the issue?
It's always "We've got to do something to cover the rising cost of healthcare!! ! Raise taxes, force employers to cover thier employees whether they can afford it or not!! ! People are dying in the streets because they can't afford healthcare!! ! Whaaa, whaaa, whaaa :cry: " etc, etc. ad nauseam.

Even as a hate-filled, greedy, hard hearted conservative who is generally against regulation and bumbling government meddling I'm more in favor of putting price caps on ALL medical services over a certain dollar amount than trying to keep up with the costs with even more government meddling to the same effect as a dog chasing his tail.

It would be quite a task to hash out all the details and itemize everything then actually enforce it but it's got to be better than the current approach of cost chasing. Why are people so feeble minded that they are intimidated by the medical profession (industry) to the point that they won't question the cost of services they are expected to pay? I have no such inhibitions.

You're not wrong about healthcare costs driving many social policy problems in this country. It''s actually medicare costs that really threaten Social Security, for example.

The thing is, price caps WOULD NOT be hard to implement. Every other first world country does this. The MRI that costs me $10,000.00 only costs $500.00 in Japan...


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envirozentinel
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24 Oct 2015, 1:22 pm

Quote:
Anyone who cares for animals as you do can't be.

That's mostly dogs that I care for. Other animals (and people) fall in somewhere behind dogs in my mind.

Dogs are worth it! They mostly behave far better than many humans! :D


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24 Oct 2015, 1:36 pm

GoonSquad wrote:
Raptor wrote:
Healthcare is VERY expensive.

Has anyone other than me come to the conclusion that the actual cost of healthcare is the issue?
It's always "We've got to do something to cover the rising cost of healthcare!! ! Raise taxes, force employers to cover thier employees whether they can afford it or not!! ! People are dying in the streets because they can't afford healthcare!! ! Whaaa, whaaa, whaaa :cry: " etc, etc. ad nauseam.

Even as a hate-filled, greedy, hard hearted conservative who is generally against regulation and bumbling government meddling I'm more in favor of putting price caps on ALL medical services over a certain dollar amount than trying to keep up with the costs with even more government meddling to the same effect as a dog chasing his tail.

It would be quite a task to hash out all the details and itemize everything then actually enforce it but it's got to be better than the current approach of cost chasing. Why are people so feeble minded that they are intimidated by the medical profession (industry) to the point that they won't question the cost of services they are expected to pay? I have no such inhibitions.

You're not wrong about healthcare costs driving many social policy problems in this country. It''s actually medicare costs that really threaten Social Security, for example.

The thing is, price caps WOULD NOT be hard to implement. Every other first world country does this. The MRI that costs me $10,000.00 only costs $500.00 in Japan...


$10K for an MRI ?!?!?!
Lord! :roll: :roll:
A few weeks ago I was talking to someone who had to have his dog MRI'd for some kind of cancer in her upper respiratory system and sinuses. He said it would have been $1800 locally or go to a university that teaches veterinary medicine and get it for about $1000. I thought both were over the top but $10,000 to do one on a person is f*****g insane!
This is what I'm talking about and that is only a diagnostic step, not a cure for the actual problem.

I agree $500 is a much more reasonable fee and everyone is still making money, just not a killing.


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