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Election 2011 - Party Policies - Health - ACC

Election 2011 - Party Policies - Health - ACC

ACC

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  • All New Zealanders will have the choice of buying the welfare products they need in a competitive open marketplace (health cover, sickness, accident and health insurance).
  • Insurance companies will be obliged to provide information relating to prices and costs, people can elect to rely on self-insurance for small items of expenditure. (more here)

  • Ensure that all people who have a genuine work-related gradual process injury, disease or infection, including occupational overuse injuries and chemical poisoning, can obtain ACC cover.
  • Ensure that all people who receive unexpected and unintended injuries as a consequence of medical treatment can access ACC cover.
  • Restore cover to people who suffer only mental injury caused by accident, treatment by registered health professionals, or work-related gradual process injury, disease or infection.
  • Introduce a regime under which weekly compensation is treated no differently from other income for benefit abatement purposes.
  • Take into account seasonal workers and people in temporary employment in the formula setting the level of weekly compensation.
  • Adequately fund independent advocacy agencies for people who are injured.
  • Create an ACC ombusdman to take over the functions of the ACC Complaints Investigation Service. (more here)

  • Labour supports maintaining ACC as a publicly administered and delivered social insurance scheme which provides comprehensive and universal coverage for all New Zealanders.
  • Labour supports the principles of universal no-fault cover for all injuries as originally outlined in the Woodhouse Report.
  • Labour will not privatise ACC and will reverse any privatisation of any part of ACC that occurs before the election.
  • Labour will increase, as resources allow, funding for health and safety programmes and long term injury prevention strategies.
  • Labour will strengthen workplace injury prevention initiatives through industry taskforces to increase the skill levels and number of trained Health and Safety Representatives.
  • Labour will ensure that there are systems put in place to ensure better coordination between.
  • ACC and other agencies responsible for injury prevention, such as the Department of Labour, the Police and the NZ Transport Agency.
  • Labour will reverse the introduction of experience rating into the ACC scheme to ensure that claimants are provided with entitlement and rehabilitation to the maximum extent practicable,
    and will consider alternative means of incentivising and encouraging good health and safety measures.
  • Labour will investigate the introduction of a flat rate levy on all employers to fund occupational disease claims. The levy would be a flat rate levy due to the difficulties in attributing occupational disease to a particular employer. (more here)

  • Provide stable, ongoing funding for community based beneficiary and ACC advocacy groups throughout the country. (more here)

Not set out on their website.

Not set out on their website.

  • Support the continuation of the ‘no-fault’ regime and mandatory workplace accident insurance, but support competition in the provision of accident compensation services.
  • Continue ACC’s focus on injury prevention.
  • Discount employer levies for those who undertake workplace safety regimes, and give more responsibility to industry sector groups to ensure safe practices.
  • Ensure that ACC genuinely attempts to rehabilitate long-term claimants before they exit the scheme.
  • Establish a truly independent committee to review appeals against ACC decisions. This committee would also have the power to make recommendations to the government on potential changes to ACC legislation should it find flaws that regularly lead to unfair decisions. (more here)

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