Mind Lock

[...]I've been in the private sector all of my life.. and if you are a vendor that works with the state, you should plan for this kind of thing... and the folks that work for the state should be paying for their own child care.. my wife and I paid for our own child care..

Where is it written that you are entitled to a raise or guaranteed an income... and why should a Republican Senator return your call.. you didn't vote for him anyway...

Go talk with some private sector folks and ask them how they feel about your situation...

Since you [...] suck from the "teet of the public trough" maybe it's time you learn to ween your self away from it because we "the teet" are tired of getting sucked dry with ever increasing taxes..

It's been on my mind ever since I first read it.

If we lived in a world where the insurance companies that deal in workers' compensation were out to help the injured worker rather than make money from the businesses that pay them, my job wouldn't be necessary. Twenty-four offices of varying sizes from ten people to over a hundred, would be closed and I would be okay with that. I'd be okay because I'd know that everyone who was legitimately injured in the course of working would be taken care of with no worries about how to get to the doctor's or how much the surgery and rehab will cost.

We don't live in that kind of a world, though.

We live in a world where workers' comp insurance companies try to spend as little money as possible on injured workers'. They try to speed up settlements that will probably get worse so they won't have to pay for surgery or rehab. They make "suggestions" for treatment before doctors are consulted. They use delay tactics to keep from paying doctors so often than nearly two thirds of the cases have liens on them. And insurance companies use every opportunity they can to raise the rates that employers pay because they want protect themselves and their employees.

That is why the board I work at exists, to protect injured workers from insurance companies, to see that injured workers get the treatment they need. My job exists to do the support work so that the judges can protect injured workers from companies who only want to collect money, not pay any out.

For some reason, maybe it's just because I'm naive, I think that, on an individual level, people are good. They want other people to succeed and be well in life. They want everyone else to live a good life. The problem is when they get into groups.

Sure, it used to be that groups were good. They were how people survived. The more people there were, the easier it was to hunt for/gather food so no one would starve, the easier it was to watch and care for the young, and the easier it was to keep predators away. But when two groups met, instead of consolidating to form a larger group, they'd, quite often, fight because each wanted to protect their people from what they saw as different.

When these groups grew, through breeding and accepting people similar to the ones already there, into cities and then city-states, the people inside were only marginally connected to the whole and so they started forming groups within the larger groups. The groups within decided that they needed to protect what they had, get more, and keep other groups within from getting. And the groups within who had (money, power, whatever) found that if they said they need/wanted/took for the city-state, the people would let the groups within do whatever as long as there was some token for all, like a festival or parade or clean water supply.

So we've grown. We, in the USA, are individuals within groups within communities within cities (or towns) within counties (or parishes) within states (or commonwealths) within a nation within the global community (although we tend to be a very schizophrenic member of that last community). The problem is that the individuals rarely police the groups they're part of; they expect the cities (police) or the counties (courts) or states (regulatory bodies, courts) to do it for them.

And that's why places like the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. That's why there's this job.

Still, if all the groups of people out there were out to help people and each other, I'd be okay with this job no longer existing.

PS "Go talk with some private sector folks and ask them how they feel about your situation..."
If the people in the private sector were in the same situation as the employees of the state are and vendors for the state are, they'd be getting ready to sue the company they work for because out in the private sector, people aren't expected to show up to work if they're not getting paid or their contracts aren't honored.