The Red Mist Clears

[Mom]

Well technically that is a porky. It was not so much a mist, as a torrential downpour of ARRRGHHH! That has settled now into something of a red glow. Interesting thing about it though, while anger is still very much in evidence it is not hot. You know how if you scald yourself with very hot water it actually feels cold? Well this feels a bit like that, a red mist that is inclusive of a cold and steely determination to prevail.

I guess at this point you may well be wondering what I have been smoking, but trust me I am as clear as crystal in my thinking around these “proposed” increases in ACC levies for bikes, that the dishonourable Nick Smith announced recently. How many times as a group do we have to be singled out and targeted around this ACC issue? I clearly remember riding up Queen St on my trusty CB125 in the late ‘70s and parking up with what seemed like an enormous number of other “proper” bikers to make a stand. There was a big ride out to Wellington in 1993. I could not participate in that, somehow I could not strap 3 children under 6 to my bike for the trip, much as I would have loved to. Not the strapping on of kids mind, but the participation in the protest.

Now, I don’t know about you, but my advanced maths skills are not strong. I found the whole maths thing confused the “you know what” out of me at school and frankly not much has changed. I do however eek out something of a living crunching numbers and counting beans, and even I can see the appalling and dishonest way the statistics are being skewed, and misrepresented in an attempt to justify these outrageous proposed increases.

What is more, this time there is a very thinly veiled agenda in the back ground, someone thinks they are going to be making a shed load of money out of the misfortune of others. Well as far as I am concerned they can think again!

I have been using this as my signature for the last few weeks, “I imagine a huge ground swell of bikes gathering like a storm cloud around Wellington....”. Well the time has come. That storm cloud is forming. I can feel the barometric pressure dropping from here. I am picking by lunchtime on Tuesday 17 November, it will be veritably raining bikes on the capital.

I had the best fun in ages yesterday. Nothing like sticking to the man! Watch out for more of the same in a town near you, for as long as it takes. Only one small dampener for me, my Blue Lovely would not start! How dare she decide to let me down on one of the biggest outings we have had. Nothing, but nothing would convince her to go. I ended up pillioning down and “convincing” some poor fellow to forgo the ride to take me to the Domain so I could do what I needed to do.

[Pixie]

To add insult to injury,I just received an invoice from the ACCholes for $1700 in work place cover.
Now convince me that I can't get cheaper cover elsewhere if they did not have a monopoly.I know for certain that any other insurance would be based on risk not what my income was.

[DidJit]

...there is a very thinly veiled agenda in the back ground...

Yes, there is. And it is that which has most induced the red mist in me.

[YellowDog]

Look, ACC is a private health service that should be funded by private insurance companies.

It should be for rich snobs and not for people who work for a living.

Someone on the radio said that it cost $52k to fund their claim for a sprained anckle!

This is wrong.

Why the goverment and previous governments see fit to line the pockets of already wealthy doctors, I don't know or understand.

There is already a public health service, it just needs to get larger and put the gravey train boys out of business.

I don't agree with the general public paying for a private health service. It should be a choice and not forced upon us.

[Squiggles]

Increase the levies, make people say it'd be cheaper if they could shop around... they're not undermining the system are they?

[Mom]

Woodhouse Principles! Think about why ACC was formed in the first place, a no fault ACCIDENT PREVENTION and Compensation Corporation. Let us not forget we gave up the right to SUE here. We gave that right up, and now they are attempting to make us pay more because we are vulnerable. HELLO!

Get your thinking brain on folks!

[Mom]

To add insult to injury,I just received an invoice from the ACCholes for $1700 in work place cover.

I dont open those envelopes anymore.

Look, ACC is a private health service that should be funded by private insurance companies.

You are so wrong! ACC is not a private anything, it is a PUBLIC organisation set up to make sure that all of us, regardless of what we did got treatment, rehabilitation and earnings compensation while we recovered from the mistake we made. THE END! Not sure how old you are, but think on this. We gave up the right to SUE the prick that took us out in the first place, on the understanding that we would be looked after by ACC.

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

Woodhouse Principles! Think about why ACC was formed in the first place, a no fault ACCIDENT PREVENTION and Compensation Corporation. Let us not forget we gave up the right to SUE here. We gave that right up, and now they are attempting to make us pay more because we are vulnerable. HELLO!

Get your thinking brain on folks!

Thats what I am fighting for... I have said on here that ACC is flawed... and it is in the way it collects its levies and there are better means to do this as many of the threads on here show... But ACC at the end of the day is cheaper than a private accident insurance will ever be and is the envy of the world... it is the one thing NZ has done right.

The day ACC split the seperate accounts was the day ACC started to go against the principles of the scheme. It was never ever designed to have these it was simply design to draw on ALL the resources as a full community funded scheme to cover any and all accidents.

Having the seperate accounts just opens it all up to point fingers at the different groups that cost x amout etc... and to gather more money when over ALL it's not needed, the seperate accounts means less cross subsidising when technically thats how it was set up to work. The more cross subsidising the lower the levies could be... As over all the fund pool is bigger.

ACC needs to go back to its roots

[Hanne]

Increase the levies, make people say it'd be cheaper if they could shop around... they're not undermining the system are they?

Exactly, in some ways I would say that huge protests are what they are after because then they can say 'all these people are against the system, here's a solution' and sell it off. Personally I think the principles of ACC are great, sure it needs looking at, but the fundamentals on which it was built are a world first. I would hate to see these protests about levies being skewed into 'anti - ACC in general'. But that is quite possible thanks to our friends at 'ACC Insurance', and that is politics for you. '

Just need to be careful to clearly articulate exactly WHAT we are opposed to, I guess. Anyway, all the best to those riding down.

[YellowDog]

I dont open those envelopes anymore.



You are so wrong! ACC is not a private anything, it is a PUBLIC organisation set up to make sure that all of us, regardless of what we did got treatment, rehabilitation and earnings compensation while we recovered from the mistake we made. THE END! Not sure how old you are, but think on this. We gave up the right to SUE the prick that took us out in the first place, on the understanding that we would be looked after by ACC.

I don't agree.

It is a publicly funded private health service.

This is an outrage.

When you need a taxi do you always insist on a BMW or a Mercedes?

ACC = BMW & Mercedes charges when a Ford or Holden would do.

The Gravy train for the medical profession.

Not good value to the public whom have to fund it.

[Toaster]

Red mist.... what happens the moment a sniper bullet exits the skull of its target.

(and no this is not off topic).

[rainman]

Red mist.... what happens the moment a sniper bullet exits the skull of its target.

(and no this is not off topic).

I don't think you're allowed to shoot 'em.

The Gravy train for the medical profession

That's a key point that hasn't had a lot of discussion - the medical profession do seem to be a bit keen with their fees. That said, I don't see why public or private ACC would change this - the issue is driven by a bunch of factors including cost of medical training and scarcity of local medical staff. If anything, privatisation would just add a profit margin for the insurer on top of the extortionate profits charged by the docs.

Anyhoo, to all of you on the bikeoi this week: best of luck, have a safe trip, and stick it to the man for me! (I'd love to be there but my mom-in-law died last week and the missus had to head off overseas to deal with funerals etc, so I'm dad on duty/kid taxi/househusband/chief cook and bottle washer... )