I have a great deal of misgiving about the attempt of a couple to claim under ACC for the accident of their daughter’s birth. Their daughter’s spina bifida (open spine at birth) was not discovered on ultrasound and, as the parents insist that they would have aborted her, if they had known, they are trying [...]

My little amphibian friend over at FrogBlog is having a whine (or would that be a croak?) at ACC proposed increase in motorcycle levies. He dismisses this ACC explanation as “spin”. As usual with the motorcycle debate, there is much heat and misinformation, but I thought ACC’s new release was remarkably non-spin, considering the amount [...]

Have you noticed recently how every headline in the media is slanted to make whatever is happening in ACC look bad? ACC is clearly the current whipping boy and Nick Smith appears to be the Minister designated for denigration. This headline is a particularly egregious sample:
ACC pulls fall plan support
While superficially true, it obscures the [...]

Gordon Campbell waxes lyrical on the plan to cut ACC benefits to seasonal workers, dwelling on the evils of ideology (National’s, of course. Socialist ideology is not evil in Campbell’s book). My little amphibious friend at FrogBlog uses Campbell’s diatribe as the basis of one of his “Gutting ACC” posts. The only problem is that [...]

The editorial in the Herald today in support of an excess charge for ACC payments is an excellent, eminently sensible article. Unfortunately, in reality, this may be a little more difficult to achieve than it looks. GP’s and A&Ms already have a part-charge for most patients, as do most radiologists. The only place where you [...]

Tim Hazledine (professor of economics at the University of Auckland) seems to think that ACC is just fine.  He uses the example of putting money aside for you child’s future university studies, the total cost of which he places as $500 thousand:
And you haven’t got that, have you? You’ve got about $20,000 in KiwiSaver accounts. You’ve [...]

The Frog continues his series on ACC changes, complaining this time about the changes to the management of sexual abuse counseling. Interestingly, Frog is moaning about counsellors having to provide a DSM IV mental health diagnosis, which is odd, because they have always been expected to provide a diagnosis from DSM IV. These diagnoses are [...]

A small, green amphibian over on Frogblog is doing a series on National’s “gutting” of ACC (If only!). Yesterday, he was griping about the plan to cease compensation for people with hearing losses under 6%. Apparently this is not “fair”.
How it can be fair to compensate people for a barely noticeable hearing loss is beyond [...]

Colin Espiner blogs on the mess that is ACC today. For the most part I agree with what he has to say, but one particular sentence stood out. In the midst of a comment about the large increase of fees for motorcyclists (which is somehow “unfair” –  despite that fact that motorcyclists cost ACC far [...]

Well, maybe not. It seems like it is suddenly going to get a whole lot more expensive. Trevor Mallard seems to think that the government is fear-mongering. He, along with Brian Fallow and Rod Oram, seem to think that the ACC blowout is merely an accounting problem, a combination of accounting standards and poor investment [...]