The Injured Workers' Manifesto

Saturday, November 19, 2005 | 0

The following is an Injured Workers' Manifesto, authored in 2001 by Mary Bailey, of VOICES Inc. , a copy of which was directed at that time to US Senator Thomas Daschle, US Representative Dennis Hastert and Attorney General John Ashcroft:

We, the Injured Workers of the State of Florida and across the nation contend the following iniquities of the Workers' Compensation System.

The Workers Compensation System does NOT enforce it's own laws and statutes already in place for the benefit of injured workers:

a) Timely diagnosis and medical treatment and approval of such treatment within the time frame set by existing laws.

b) Timely automatic benefits within the time frame set by existing law.

The Workers Compensation system often obtains medical as well as personal information on injured workers which has no pertinence to the claim and serves no necessary purpose in resolving the claim, but rather is used as a tactic to deter and frighten claimants out of litigation and into unfair settlement.

The Workers Compensation System willfully prolongs litigation, knowing the compensations courts are overloaded with cases, causing further severe psychological, physical and financial damage to the claimants, in hopes of pushing claimants into premature and unfair settlement.

The Workers Compensation System takes advantage of their exemption from repercussion or liability from lawsuit leaving injured workers with no recourse.

The Workers Compensation System knowingly and willingly makes fraudulent charges against many claimants in order to intimidate them and to avoid having to medically or financially compensate claimants.

The Workers Compensation System consistently cuts and denies benefits in order to starve claimants out and force their acceptance of inadequate, unfair settlements, causing many claimants to lose everything they have worked for ie; homes, vehicles, savings, ect; and forcing many into bankruptcy, loss of credit standing, and even loss of family and spouses in many cases. and resulting in suicide of others.

The Workers Compensation System forces injured workers back to work on a light duty status prior to their recovery until their compensation has expired and then their employer discriminates against them with termination because they are unable to perform their job at 100% capability.

The Workers Compensation System consistently contends that claimants attorney fees are the major cause for insurance premium increases to the employer when in fact litigation in the majority of cases is NOT pursued by the claimant until the Workers Compensation System forces the claimant to seek an attorney because he has been continuously denied necessary medical treatment, medications and/or supplemental benefits.. The system itself is in fact, the cause of most compensation related litigation.

The Workers Compensation System is in collusion with many physicians to deny diagnosis and treatment in favor of getting the claimant back to work despite their medical problems, willfully neglecting needed treatment Many physicians comply because to buck the system means the loss of a substantial number of patients.

The Workers Compensation System willfully and knowingly shifts the burden of responsibility for permanently disabled injured workers onto the already over burdened Social Security Disability system for which the injured worker paid half, himself. Why is the Workers Compensation System allowed to get off the hook and shift this burden?

There are many more iniquities of the Workers Compensation System, that are too numerous to list one by one, but an investigation into the Workers Compensation system of any individual state will begin to reveal these iniquities enough to convince you that further investigation is indeed warranted.

We feel confident, that you as the guardians of our great nation and representatives of we, the people, will share our concerns and act upon our request for help.



by Mary Bailey
President, VOICES, Inc.
Crs012001@cs.com
www.voicesflorida.com

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