ACC bollocks

[Ocean1]

By the sounds of it Ocean you would be able to confirm something I read a while ago.
For private insurers to have a competitive market in nz, that was worthwhile for their investment, and they were competing with ACC for market share (a system where you might op out of ACC cover)

Correct but the competition idea hasn't been mentioned for 18 months. Looks like its died which is good.

There's a lot of argument about who should be paying what, but the fact is that everyone gets pretty good value for their money. Especially those who contribute nothing, a situation no privately funded insurance would touch. The comparatively high bang for our buck comes mostly from the way litigation over accident fault drives both legal and medical costs elsewhere.

In most of the rest of the western world either the injured party or his insurance company will go after anyone supposedly causing or contributing to the accident. That process often costs more than the medical bill. Also, doctors in the US for example are hugely risk-averse in how they treat people. There's a good chance that if their patient isn't happy or suffers unforeseen downstream problems they'll end up in court too. So they'll order every test known to man so that if they end up in court they can say they did all that was possible for their patient. That over-treatment cost all adds in to the overall medical costs along with and the doctor’s medical insurance, of course, which effectively doubles the cost of treatment.

If private personal accident insurance were to be made available here it would cost far, far more than ACC currently does. The one big difference here, of course is the insurance companies current inability to recover costs from some alleged contributor to the damages. You can imagine what that would do to any private insurance prices here. I can’t see any way that private insurance can ever be competitive with our current ACC system without changing the laws surrounding damages litigation. American doctors beginning work here are initially amazed that they actually get to practice medicine, not law, and that their professional opinion should be what drives treatment. There's other factors, but that’s two reasons why lawyers need to be kept out of medicine, each of which doubles the cost of treatment.

As shit as ACC is its not as bad as it can get, at least in my opinion (and yes Im a builder, and I have been F*&%^$d over by ACC)

What I don't like is the current drop in levies which looks like a lolly for next years election.

Of course, politicians will always tweak shit to buy votes, (I’m amazed that the scheme has remained as unfucked with as it has for 30 odd years), which is why BL has learned to be wary of any benefits ACC might have for him as a self-employed builder. ACC has a shocking history of treating that group poorly and we don’t represent a particularly large voting block. I’ve heard some real horror stories about them dragging the chain with working out remuneration etc until the poor bastard is left with the choice of either going back to work or going hungry. There's enough discouragement for young tradies and business entrepreneurs as it is, without that hanging over your head. Indeed we're an endangered species, but that's another bitch...

[badlieutenant]

pretty much bang on there ocean. Injured at work. I had to go back to work because i had maxed out credit cards and savings on rent food etc.. It was at the end of 3 months that some payment came thru. Something like 520$. I could only work half days before the pain became so bad I had to go home. But it was a simple choice. Eat or not eat.
I would glady have beaten to a pulp the smarmy case manager. Once I was better that is ...
With ACC been so nasty so the self employed what it means for work place injury is that none get reported as such. They happened at home. Which means their data will be screwed.