National opens ACC to private sector

[Ocean1]

Some of you guys might be a little young to notice a pattern, here.

It goes like this:

Labour gets in, spends up large. The books look bad, Labour gets slung out on it's arse.

National gets in, cuts spending to make ends meet. The peasants revolt, National gets voted out.

One requires no further insight to explain NZ politics.

Now go play on the motorway the lot of you.

[RiderInBlack]

They are dreading this guys arival - wait and see how our already overburdened hospitals deal with 1200 less nurses dude..........

Even the Doctors are dreading the cuts this dudes gonna impliment
Bah humbug.

Aye, I'm already doing a lot of unpaid overtime as a RN thanks very much ta getting tight fisted. The House Officers (Young new-be DC's) are already under-staffed and over work. All I get from MOH is more F*cken Paperwork. If the Scot CEO wants ta trim the fat, then he can start with himself and then cut the paperwork down. Less paperwork = less Bureaucrats = less costs & more time for Hospital staff to look after Patients.

[MSTRS:Me]

I had this mad idea that the health system was there for the benefit of the patients.
Should I forward this to Ripley's?

[pete376403]

Some of you guys might be a little young to notice a pattern, here.

It goes like this:

Labour gets in, spends up large. The books look bad, Labour gets slung out on it's arse.

National gets in, cuts spending to make ends meet. The peasants revolt, National gets voted out.

One requires no further insight to explain NZ politics.

Now go play on the motorway the lot of you.

It works the other way too. You may be old enough to recall the fourth labour govt (1984 - 1990) and the financial mess they (Labour) inherited from National. There was a major run on the New Zealand Dollar caused by the constitutional crisis following the election, when outgoing Prime Minister Robert Muldoon refused to devalue the New Zealand dollar.

It's not all one-sided.

[Ocean1]

You may be old enough to recall the fourth labour govt

I am. Old enough in fact to be quietly pleased to have forgoten most of it.

It's not all one-sided.

I didn't suggest it was the complete picture. There's occasional departures from the generic script but the normal programe is invariably restored pretty much immediately following any aberations.

[Winston001]

When they try to sell ACC it will be sold as a great thing as being a private company it will be cheaper cos private companies are great at cutting cost....

Yeah this is a common misunderstanding of private vs public. Private business must operate profitably to survive, which means being efficient and focused. That is not cost-cutting. Instead the attitude is to get the clearest result for the dollar spent.

By contrast public organisations (and business monopolies) don't have to concentrate on every dollar spent. They certainly try but if expenses blow-out, they just ask/charge more. No consequences either. We cannot escape them.

[Brian d marge]

It works the other way too. You may be old enough to recall the fourth labour govt (1984 - 1990) and the financial mess they (Labour) inherited from National. There was a major run on the New Zealand Dollar caused by the constitutional crisis following the election, when outgoing Prime Minister Robert Muldoon refused to devalue the New Zealand dollar.

It's not all one-sided.

You mean the business round table in disguise, that led to Mr Krieger ,and Mr John it wasn't me Key . selling NZ well short

Stephen

Ps , I REALLY want to be a politician, Im not good at the lyin thing , but I can and have been known to talk whole legs off Donkeys
think of the money ........

[RiderInBlack]

OK back on track. Just received this from ACC Futures :


Welcome to the first newsletter of the ACC Futures Coalition for 2011 and to the campaign to keep ACC as a publicly-owned single provider committed to the provision of injury prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and ‘no fault’ compensation social insurance system for all New Zealanders.

Thank you for signing up to support the campaign. We are group of affiliated organisations and individuals who want an ACC scheme that operates on the basis of its founding principles of:
· Community responsibility – we must look after all those who, through injury, are unable to contribute to the welfare of the community
· Comprehensive entitlement – all injured persons must be covered by the community funded scheme on the same uniform basis
· Complete rehabilitation – promotion of rehabilitation to the fullest possible extent
· Real compensation – compensation must be meaningful
· Administrative efficiency – speed, consistency, economy and lack of dispute shouldcharacterise the collection of funds and their distribution as benefits

Accordingly the Coalition is opposed the current government’s direction on ACC which over-emphasises the insurance aspects of the scheme and undermines the social aspects of the scheme. We are dismayed at the run down of the scheme over the last two years and the proposals to privatise some of the ACC accounts.

You can help us right away by
1. Signing up to our Facebook page if you haven’t yet
2. Signing up to our web site support page if you haven’t yet
3. Spreading the word among your friends and networks to do the same
We need as many people as possible to sign up.

Stocktake Released – Privatisation announced
Just before Christmas the government finally released the report of the group undertaking the stocktake of the ACC accounts. It is a huge document and we are currently analysing it to try and understand the full implications. However main points include:
· The government intends to privatise the work account following the next election by opening it up to competition with private insurers. Work is already underway to make this happen
· They intend to extend the Accredited Employer scheme which enables larger employers to self-insure and manage their own workplace accidents rather than signing up to ACC
· Related to this we will see greater use of private third party administrators (TPAs) in the management of individual cases. TPAs have a bad track record
· Removing the Disputes Resolution Services Ltd (DSRL) from the ownership of ACC to improve independence. This may be a positive move

We will provide more information once our analysis is completed but in the mean time we are working to oppose the moves to privatisation and the greater use of TPAs.

Election year seminars
The Coalition is intending to organize seminars in Auckland (in conjunction with the School of Business at Auckland University), Wellington and Dunedin. We are inviting representatives of the political parties to outline their policies and they will be supports by a range of expert speakers.

These have not been finalized. Dates, venues and speakers will be announced once known. Keep an eye out for these.

Other campaign initiatives
It is election year and the ACC Futures Coalition will be working on other campaign activities to raise the profile of ACC as an election issue. We are interested in your ideas. Please send your thoughts to info@accfutures.org.nz

Petition on hearing loss
ACC Futures Coalition affiliate the National Foundation for the Deaf (NFD) intends presenting a petition to the House of Representatives protesting against the government’s decision to discriminate against people with industrial noise induced hearing loss by disallowing cover under ACC for rehabilitation, until they prove they have at least 6% of sound injury hearing loss. This is a group of New Zealanders who do not have ‘comprehensive entitlement’.

You can read about this and download the petition forms by going to the NFD website


Glenn Barclay
Convenor
ACC Futures Coalition
P.O. Box 5173
Wellington

info@accfutures.org.nz

Worth a read. It is not all about Biker's Rego's. More is at stake..

[StoneY]

Some of you guys might be a little young to notice a pattern, here.

Yes we do.
Every time a National govt gets in the workers of NZ get thouroughly shafted without any lube used.

Abuse Labour all you like for attempting to provide some sort of balance but at least they wont sell our tiuny little countries assetts off to thier round table mates

[Ocean1]

Abuse Labour all you like for attempting to provide some sort of balance but at least they wont sell our tiuny little countries assetts off to thier round table mates

P'raps not, but you can't claim their fiscal policies don't generally make it nescessary for National to sell something when they eventually get the till drawer closed on their fingers. As you say, balance.

[avgas]

Yes we do.
Every time a National govt gets in the workers of NZ get thouroughly shafted without any lube used.

Abuse Labour all you like for attempting to provide some sort of balance but at least they wont sell our tiuny little countries assetts off to thier round table mates

Are you sure about that?
I remember one was as bad as the other.
I don't remember there being the same government for my whole lifetime.....yet there are clearly sales for this whole period.

http://www.treasury.govt.nz/governme...s/saleshistory

[avgas]

Less paperwork = less Bureaucrats = less costs & more time for Hospital staff to look after Patients.

Yes and No.
Also less traceability in some instances. Less transparency.

While I think that excessive paper work is bad. No paper work is worse. So its a fine line.

Last thing I want is some doc to open up the wrong leg due to missing form. Or a nurse giving me the wrong drip because a checklist was incorrect.

Also you can probably blame the legal teams rather than management - as I imagine 80% of that paperwork is to do with liability insurance more than anything else.

[RiderInBlack]

While I think that excessive paper work is bad. No paper work is worse. So its a fine line.

WE have EXCESSIVE PAPER WORK. So much so that I can't get it all done and look after my patients at the same time. Please I didn't say no paperwork. It's important that I hit the floor knowing what I need to do to maintain my patients' safety, But I'd rather be late feeding the Computer & writing BS than leave my patients in Pain sitting in their own shit. If ya working as a Nurse in a Hospital, ya will know what I mean by Excessive Paper Work that is just BS-Butt-Cover for the legal protection which although it says we have done our job, it doesn't mean that it really happened that way.

As for National vs Labour, I don't trust ether of them. Pig Muldoon Left NZ with a shit load of debit from His "Think Big" and then NZ got Rodgered by Rodgernomics as Labour Sold Assets that would have had National envious. One Election Year National & Labour were so alike, that I voted Gillacutty Serious Party as a "F*ck Them All" vote.

I don't see Labour saying that they are going to return ACC to the "Woodhouse Principals" it was founded on in any of their Promises for this Election Year as yet. I might have to see what Jimmy A is offering this Election, or God Forbid go Green.