WTF National privatising ACC?

[Timber020]

If they privatize the ACC system, Litigation US style will eventually follow.

Big guys get rich, we get screwed. Everyone gets sued

[Headbanger]

Is that the staff themselves or the constraints in which they are working (understaffed, etc)??

Getting boozed and then chopping the wrong bits off people was a big issue.

[Hitcher]

If they privatize the ACC system, Litigation US style will eventually follow.

Big guys get rich, we get screwed. Everyone gets sued

Please explain.

[Tumbles]

I find it hard to jump to the conclusion of everyone sueing everyone else just because accident compensation is privatised. At the end of the day, the US is based on trial law. If a law case wins even though it doesn't reflect the law, it can be used as an example in later cases. Here the law is the law no mater what.

In terms of ACC, as a motorcyclist and an employee, I resent being forced to pay ACC levies on top of my fuel, my car, my motorcycle, and again on my PAYE tax. The way it is set up at the moment, I pay more to ACC than the average person because I earn more. Even though I am no more at risk as an employee than the next person. It's basically another way for Labour to divert money from high incomes to low incomes. I earn what I earn because i worked bloody hard to get to that position. The government can go fuck itself if it thinks its fair to redistribute my hard earned cash to the poor.

[Street Gerbil]

I pay more to ACC than the average person because I earn more. Even though I am no more at risk as an employee than the next person. It's basically another way for Labour to divert money from high incomes to low incomes. I earn what I earn because i worked bloody hard to get to that position. The government can go fuck itself if it thinks its fair to redistribute my hard earned cash to the poor.

Do you have an insurance policy guarnteeing that you will always be healthy,rich, and successful? i pay more than an average Joe Bloggs myself, but I am happy to shoulder my part because tomorrow I may find myself in a less comfortable situation.

[peasea]

I have a mate (just the one) who got done over severely by ACC. He had a few, did the right thing, rang Dial A Driver, sweet. However, DAD put his car into a tree, wrote the car off, smashed his pelvis, blah blah. That's ok, I'll be covered by ACC. To a point.

His mortgage was horrendous but it's ok, he earns heaps. However, ACC has a cap on what they'll cover. His ACC payments didn't even cover his mortgage; he's a high-flyer. He came over from the UK, thinks 'sweet, good job, get a nice place, I can afford the repayments' then gets himself a hospital bed and no way to pay the mortgage coz nobody told him about the cap.

OK, try to sue DAD. No way, they changed their name and nobody is accountable. He nearly lost his house. He certailnly lost his car, a very nice HSV. Gone.

Personally; I had an injury (no fault of my own) that to this day gives me agony and the experts tell me there's nothing wrong.

ACC? Not from where I sit.

[peasea]

To be blunt (but perhaps not overly fair), he has no one to blame for the consequences of his accident other than himself. Which "high flyer" doesn't protect his investments properly, has lawyers read the fine print of insurance policies (which it appears he had none), have income protection, family trusts, the list goes on. I'm just a lowly ambo but have a two mortgages and a child, so have income protection, life insurance, permanent disability insurance, medical cover etc.
As an aside the few true "high flyers" I know have Masserati's, Aston Martins, M5 BMW's, Ducati Desmosideci's etc.. there P.A's drive HSV's...........

Ok, 'high-flyer' in my low world then......But he had more than one toy, some thirsty aquatic devices and so on.

However; this guy was new to NZ and was ill-informed, he'll not be making the same mistakes twice, I can assure you. As for Aston Martins and their ilk; I share his sentiments in their lack of daily useability and user unfriendliness. It's a bugger getting the Foodtown bags into the trunk of a DB7.

He's a 'high-flyer' in my books, just not Donald Trump.


He now knows about the shortcomings of ACC and has taken appropriate action but it was an expensive lesson, something that incoming bods should know about.

All of which doesn't help my bum shoulder.

[Sanx]

Opening up ACC to privatisation does not equate to abandoning the ACC system of allowing people to sue for injury. Take the Australian Compulsory Third Party insurance scheme on vehicles. It's similar to ACC in that it insures against physical injury to any third party (though not to the driver). You must have CTP, but it can be from any one of a number of CTP providers.

As an aside, it also costs about double what the ACC levy on vehicle rego in NZ costs, for less cover.

I'm in favour of ACC personally, but certainly the payments one makes are not based on the true risk a person subjects him/herself to. Ride a 125cc motorbike on the road, and you'll pay an ACC levy. Race a superbike, and you don't. No levies are payable by cyclists, equestrians, jet-skiers, rugby players, etc. etc. Should they come up with a more equitable method of determining the ACC premium each person pays, I'd be al in favour of it. And running it as an non-profit SEO, similar in structure to Southern Cross, would probably help no end too.

[koba]

I Find it difficult to comprehend that motorcyclists would be anti ACC!

I think that all in all NZ is pretty good, nothings perfect but ACC seems very reasonable to me.

[scott411]

Acc for Accidents in comman is a good scheme, all my motocross crashes have been well covered,

but as for the average one man band, or cmapny being able to shop around for a better deal, how can that not be a bad thing,

Acc has a cap of what you pay, if you want extra protection to cover your actaul pay you have to get insurance, so actaully pay twice,

and also it is like getting blood out of a stone if you are elf employed, ask Shaun, do you not remember the hell he had with ACC