This could happen to you?

Author Subject: This could happen to you?
Working Families Of America Unite Posted At 17:38:56 05/20/2000
Tonight on NBC at 8est the movie RAINMAKER will air. It's all about how far insurance company will go to but profit above a human life. Can it happen or is it just a moive. Think about it.
Fred Johnson Re: This could happen to you? (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 18:31:52 05/20/2000

Change the characters, add a doctor who is willing to help but is old enough to retire. Pay for your own sergury. Add 4 IME exams. Sounds like my story, but I'm not dead yet.
Del Re: This could happen to you? (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 10:24:48 05/23/2000

When I went to see the movie at the theatre I had no idea what is was about. As the story unfolded I too thought "Hey, this is Oregon's Workers' Comp System if you change a few names." The only real difference is that in Oregon the insurance companies have been given "legal protections" that eliminate any posibility of a damage award of the nature given in the motion picture.

Let's say the movie's character recieved his illness due to a workplace situation. The Oregon Workers' Comp System laws would have taken in account his age (yes, I know he was young). This would have taken off a large enough percentage due to "contributing factors" to reduce that element below the 51% threshold. This person would have received ZERO BENEFITS, his family would have had to sell their home to pay the medical costs, and he would have died in a hospice.

I talked alot about this 51% issue with Consumers Reports in their February issue article. Sadly, they only gave a couple lines to it. The quote they left out was that "the 51% contributing factor standard adopted by our state government has created a situation making age discrimination 'the law of the land' here in Oregon."

I want to add that this article was the best written and most detailed on the subject of workers' comp that I've ever read. You can read it from WI's main page.

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