tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489363879633129568.post9043907837085534215..comments2023-11-13T11:54:56.769-08:00Comments on DePaolo's World: Opt Out and ProPublicaAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02446191842560064784noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489363879633129568.post-87427032291600484132015-10-20T11:14:01.667-07:002015-10-20T11:14:01.667-07:00The liberterians like Minick didn't start just...The liberterians like Minick didn't start just with opt-out. It's the end result of employers with their insurers to diminish workers as if they are nothing. This has been going on for a long time, degrading injured/ill/disabled workers in all ways, as if they were just a product to make money off of and not at all, human beings Going back into history to learn a lesson is one thing but to go back just to take away rights and squash workers is just selfish and sardonic. I'm not crazy about large government either but I'd rather have government than greedy & selfish fools with no rules anytime. .AND Minick is one of those fools.Dina Padillahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10313985766065677265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489363879633129568.post-87057349397622043792015-10-19T09:37:23.463-07:002015-10-19T09:37:23.463-07:00Bravo David. Your 'left brain' is fully f...Bravo David. Your 'left brain' is fully functioning! I'm so jealous!<br /><br /><br />"If you don't know the result on a personal basis, you aren't learning and the perception is a callous disregard for the welfare of others."<br /><br />"In sort of a paternalistic way, opt-out plans heavy-handedly encourage return to work. The penalties to an employee for not getting back to work as early as possible can be significant."<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Here are some 'right brain' thoughts from a WorkComp Survivor...<br /><br />Perhaps, with some sort of Statute of Limitations for resolving a work-comp case, for example, 104 weeks, could help. Then, if the carrier has not provided sufficient medical care to return employee to work, stiff penalties and mandatory settlement could be beneficial to all parties, facilitating real insurance and real possibilities for RTW. <br /><br />My TBI case, for example, is more than 3 years 9 months on the rest and wait and wait and churn the file program, costly to all concerned, and apparently highly profitable to certain 'team members' of the licensed crowds. I blog about it while on the rest and wait and wait and wait and wait program, Every effort at return to work has been met with blockade after blockade... waiting for medical care necessary for return to work to the point of permanent and irreparable disabilities. What a racket! Thomas Motamed, CEO of CNA has a base salary of $1 milllion, and 2014 income was... $11,435,847.... Follow the money...<br /><br />Last year, or maybe the year before, The Salvation Army helped me keep the lights on! I learned about "Social Services" aka Welfare Offices and Food Banks. Harsh realities! Penalties for being a team player and top producer at my job after a slip and fall on ice? That surely sucks!<br /><br />This year, I am learning about the #MagicMath calculations and a new shell-game involving retro-SSA pay after more than 3 years of approval process, and the 'money grab' of LTD providers... the only risk of work comp is ---> TO THE WORKING CLASS. Where oh where is the DOJ and the FBI in these matters!<br /><br />For further example, had there been no WorkComp, I had excellent health insurance at the time of injury. I could have seen legit doctors, received fast and legit care, perhaps benefited by the 52 weeks or less of State Disability, and possibly been back at work in 2012. As a CONSEQUENCE OF WORKERS COMPENSATION... my life, like the lives of millions of others, has been pretty much destroyed by this system of .... how can I say it... extermination of the injured, disabled and aging population....shifting burdens to government agencies when all the profit and life has been squeezed out of the injured worker.<br /><br />One journalist, upon reviewing many of my documents had a bottom line comment that blamed me...yes, blamed me for the atrocities committed against me by the parties involved, and suggested the best I could hope for was SSDI and an early death. Of course, I am paraphrasing that writer, but I knew going in his audience was "the industry".... He taught me valuable lessons... <br /><br />I still hope to organize #CommitteesOfBloggers of Injured Workers and Others.... Boomers are getting the short-end of the Social Security/Medicare deal in increasing numbers and may see the similarities in those insurance strugggles... Till then, BlogOn!<br /><br />"WE ARE THE MEDIA NOW"LucyOccupyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09691257027888146405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489363879633129568.post-35102771484133734842015-10-19T07:17:29.060-07:002015-10-19T07:17:29.060-07:00David,
I get that Minick and his wife are acquain...David,<br /><br />I get that Minick and his wife are acquaintances of yours, and that they are good people. Unfortunately, the executives and CEO's of the client companies Minick is serving are not good people if they allow even one employee to suffer what these people have suffered, anecdote or not. <br /><br />No worker who loses a limb should be treated this way in the 21st century. That was the 19th century. <br /><br />What you fail to understand is that many in corporate America, and those of the Libertarian bend you mention, actually want to go back to the 19th century.<br /><br />Don't believe me? Just ponder what was really meant when Grover Norquist, one of W's White House gang, and anti-tax lobbyist said that he wanted to take back the country back before the Socialists took over. He was not referring to Bernie Sanders, Obama or Hillary. He was referring to Roosevelt (Theodore and Franklin), Wilson, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and yes, even Nixon.<br /><br />Your friend may be a nice guy, but as Durocher once said, "nice guys finish last", and the men at the top of many American corporations are not nice guys, at least not to their employees when they get injured.<br /><br />Opt-out sounds nice, but so does world peace. Both are difficult to achieve when greed, avarice, ignorance, stupidity and arrogance are behind the scenes of every decision individuals make.<br /><br />Change people's values and educate them to treat everyone equally, then opt-out will work, but until the primary focus is not on the bottom-line, ROI, and shareholder value, then things will change.rkrasnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09767920719114131892noreply@blogger.com