John Key - bikers' friend?

[oldrider]

I am absolutely against National introducing competition for ACC cover and I say that as a (sometimes) rightish wing voter .

National tried this in 1998 but fortunately Labour reversed it 2 years later. One thing I do remember from that time is although our employment premiums at work became cheaper, the insurance company we were with went into liquidation in 2003. I assume ACC had to pick up their clients on claim.

Private insurance companies are not interested in covering granny and your kids, or motorcyclists. They will be sensible and pick the best categories to offer policies for. Low risk white collar jobs. Yes they will be cheaper than ACC but they won't approve claims quickly like ACC do.

We've had a generation of ACC and consequently forgotten the cold hard world of personal injury insurance.

Not quite correct there Winston ... prior to ACC, there was no personal injury insurance in NZ, insurance companies wouldn't touch it!

Prices will not reduce but there could be choice and individual incentive plans, the competition "might" just hold ACC in check though!

I prefer original ACC without the interference of politicians ..... Yea right! Never ever going to happen!

[st00ji]

frankly i blame labour for the shit arsed mess we will be in in four or five years, if they had some actual policies of note and a bit of personality somewhere, anywhere, they might have swung enough votes to knock national of its perch.

not that they are really any better than national, but at least their approach is not SO bald faced 'sell public down the river, drink expensive whiskey with private sector cronies after extensive profiteering'

[breakaway]

If he does open up ACC to competition, we could see the entry of one or more providers who charge sane premiums for bikers.

Yeah, because privatising this sort of thing has workred out so well for other countries right?

[RDJ]

One could also say with equal snark and truth that the government running insurance services and state owned enterprises has worked out just so well for the taxpayer hasn't it? Yeah, right.

[breakaway]

You could, but at least with a government system, incomptetence is the only barrier. With a private system, there is incompetence, greed AND corruption. It's a net loss.

You are naive if you think that private healthcare will end make 'the taxpayer' wealther, much like how many people believed that increasing GST and reducing income tax by 0.00000000000000000001% was a good idea.

[RDJ]

A greedy, incompetent and corrupt private provider will sooner or later crash - we've seen it over and over again. The problem with the present system is that we suffer from the mistakes of people who would bail out the offending private companies, and since the government bailed them out with your and my taxes, it's a bottomless pit. Also, there have been more than enough greedy incompetent and corrupt instances of government malfeasance in New Zealand that you should easily be able to recall them. And let's face reality, government greed incompetence and corruption is always bailed out by raising taxes...

A better solution would be to reduce the element of moral hazard by making the people who gamble with other people's money, including politicians, pay up when they fail due to corruption or incompetence. We've just had a good example of how this can work with the ex-politicians being found guilty as negligent company directors. As for greed, it is self-correcting often enough, if you charge too much we will go to a cheaper but equally efficient provider.

And private healthcare is not about making anybody wealthy, it's about stopping people like you from taking others money to pay for your feelgood ideas. Public health care should be a safety net not a hammock, just like the domestic purposes benefit should be a safety net and not a comfort cocoon so (a substantial number of the people receiving it) can live a lifestyle exactly as they please while they literally laugh at those of us who set out to work every day.

[baptist]

See nothings getting cheaper by going private
The Government plans to open ACC's work account to competition from private insurers from October.
ACC Futures Coalition spokeswoman Hazel Armstrong said today papers obtained under the Official Information Act showed former ACC minister Nick Smith was looking at making the corporation charge a ''top up'' on its premiums so private insurers could compete on a level playing field.

Shows what a snivelling scheming little weasel he really can be....

I started riding with a motorcycle licence on NZ roads in 1970... dunno why you assume I don't also have personal experience of what I wrote about.

The major troubles with Govt being involved in too many parts of our lives are
1. When it makes mistakes - big ones - it never goes out of business.
2. When it makes mistakes - big ones - people are rarely personally accountable.
3. When it makes mistakes - big ones - policymakes use that as en excuse to grow Govt some more.
4. Govt adds no value, simply redistributes what we earn, enriching many - not all - of its "servants" along the way.
5. You have no choice but to buy the Govt's services. Govt can compel you to do so under threat of fines, jail, or worse.

Private sector is prone to the same first 2 issues BUT much more often firms go out of business and people are accountable personally and / or financially. 3 and 4 and 5, the private sector does not do.

Private sector companies most certainly do enrich many of their servants (and shareholders), and they very often screw over the people at the bottom of the pile.

A greedy, incompetent and corrupt private provider will sooner or later crash - we've seen it over and over again. The problem with the present system is that we suffer from the mistakes of people who would bail out the offending private companies, and since the government bailed them out with your and my taxes, it's a bottomless pit. Also, there have been more than enough greedy incompetent and corrupt instances of government malfeasance in New Zealand that you should easily be able to recall them. And let's face reality, government greed incompetence and corruption is always bailed out by raising taxes...

A better solution would be to reduce the element of moral hazard by making the people who gamble with other people's money, including politicians, pay up when they fail due to corruption or incompetence. We've just had a good example of how this can works with the ex-politicians being found guilty as company directors. As for greed, it is self-correcting often enough, if you charge too much we will go to a cheaper but equally efficient provider.

And private healthcare is not about making anybody wealthy, it's about stopping people like you from taking others money to pay for your feelgood ideas. Public health care should be a safety net not a hammock, just like the domestic purposes benefit should be a safety net and not a comfort cocoon so (a substantial number of the people receiving it) can live a lifestyle exactly as they please while they literally laugh at those of us who set out to work every day).

Private sector healthcare will be about making people money (look at the USA), very few companies go into business with the ethical idea of helping society and not making a good return.

I accept that there are people out there who fleece the system, I am not dumb enough to doubt it at all, however I work with a lot of people who really do need the help of government benefits, people in New Zealand do actually live below the OECD poverty line ( families living in cars or other peoples garages etc, and it more common than you may think) and NZ is not a cheap country to live in actually. I cannot accept a wealth gap like we have that just keeps growing and growing, palming everything off to the private sector will help to grow that gap. Sadly even if the buy in for shares is around $1000 many Kiwis will not be able to afford it (I know I will not be able to). And I used to have a very well paid private sector job, contracting to government departments, we were not cheaper but we were some else who blame and responsibility could be laid on when needed, I gave that up to help people like those I used to shaft.

NZ needs to focus a little more on ethics and a little less on making money. We would all be better off for it.

Rant over.