Employers use federal law to deny benefits

[pigfart]

lakerman1 wrote:

kevin G, you are an exemplar for the need for protective legislation for employees!
and yes, I am really smart, which is a blessing but simultaneously a curse.

I must ask if somthing is simultaneously a curse and a blessing,(I believe you are comparing opposites here)then is it in a way equal to nothin, zilch, zero....If you are so smart (like you said)why do you refer you smartness to nothin, zilch, zero???

[Guess who]

How about the Cherookee not getting there payments? I didn't know they got any?

[really]

Hyper Capitalism is taking this country off the deep end ! Looting , Fraud , theving is now legal , Must end now! Viva Revolution!

[Christopher]

Commentor wrote:

When I was 32 my particially disabled Marine Vet husband died very unexpectedly of a major heart attach. He had GI life insurance for which the paperwork and premium was paid and sent in a few weeks before he died. A few weeks after the funeral I was notifed the government had declined to pay because....his signature was not on the check. It was on all other papers and he made out the check.
So I hired a lawyer to go with me to Little Rock to do whatever. Knowing the paperwork was completed and holding the check in my hand (without signature) I was told too bad, go home, forget it. Life was very difficult what with a 18 mo old and a 4 year old, but with the help of my parents and much hardwork on my part, I made it.
It does seem as though the big guys manage to crap on the small guys pretty regularly. Always have, always will.

They will, until we start getting VIOLENT against the 'big guys' when they do shit like this. This is the main reason why our Founding Fathers made it VERY clear that we had the right to overthrow our government: because they knew it would have to be done sooner or later.

[Christopher]

really wrote:

Hyper Capitalism is taking this country off the deep end ! Looting , Fraud , theving is now legal , Must end now! Viva Revolution!

It's not 'hyper capitalism', it is PREDATORY capitalism. Even some of the economics teachers I met in college have said that our economic system is leaning more and more towards what they would call a predatory system, and some of them were and still are Republicans.
Our government has SCREWED US OVER for so many years, that many people say "Oh well, can't do anything about it!" and roll over, or try to fight but are thrown out of court by the very judges that are supposed to be for the rights of the worker AND the corporation, not just for the latter.

[Wake up USA]

Thank You wrote:

<quoted text>
Someone is getting it. The government needs to be representative of the people it serves. That means it can't be made up of just one sector of labor, like we have right now. Then again if we did that politicians would sake their skin and don a new one. Term limits would probably be the best thing for all levels of government including local.

Yhanks. Look at the people who go to Congress. They either have a lot of money or not much. When they leave Congress, their bank accounts are bulging. After one term in Congress there are no poor memebers All they do is make our lives miserable with their incompetence. Noneof them ever ran a comapny that they had to meet a payroll. The only payroll they have is their staff anf they send us stupid taxpayers the bill for them who are basically servants to them. Go for this , go for taht. Bring the car around, work on their elecetion and then we pay for these incompetents to run our country. They dont have the brains to think on their feet, they have to read from notes that a staffer wrote in large print. I am sick of these buffoons in Washington. I can hardly wait to see Sen Live Shot Kerry lose this election. He has done zilch for this state and the people are beginning to catch on because his approval ratings are in the low 30s. I hope that other people start looking at these gold brickers in Washington and decide it is time for some new tax paid employees.

[The Knowing]

From the Boardroom of Arthur Jensen on the freemarket.

Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance!

You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immense, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petrol-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reich marks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels.

It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!
Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?

You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.
What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minim ax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.
And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.

Beale: But why me?

Jensen: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.

Beale: I have seen the face of God.

Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale

[Employed by Spherion]

Great company I work for huh? NOT!! Think I better sit down and read my insurance policy.

[Just me]

Lakerman has summed it up a lot better than anyone else. ERISA deals with health plans, pensions, etc. I haven't read the facts of the Spherion case to see why they didn't have to pay, but it's likely that when he got the policy, there was some exclusion that applied, and now his widow is trying to get around that exclusion. I'm not saying it's a nice result for her, but it's the proper result, legally.

[lakerman1]

just me, thank you.
the fundamental problem with group life insurance offered by the employer is that employers change insurance carriers every two years, and there can be situations where employees die within the two year period, and the life insurance company tries to exclude coverage because they believe the death was a suicide. Example - you work for Company X, and are in the first two years of life insurance coverage, you go boating, fall overboard, and drown. Under insurance law, suicide deaths are not covered during the first two years of the policy, and it is up to your beneficiary to prove that it was not suicide. It is difficult to prove a negative, so the insurance company might try to weasel out of paying the claim.

[Just me]

The brief summary I can findindicates that the company changed life insurance companies while Mr. Amschwand was on medical leave; since the policy required the employee work at least one day before it became effective, and he never returned to work, coverage was denied.

[Caring Employer]

lakerman1 wrote:

just me, thank you.
the fundamental problem with group life insurance offered by the employer is that employers change insurance carriers every two years, and there can be situations where employees die within the two year period, and the life insurance company tries to exclude coverage because they believe the death was a suicide. Example - you work for Company X, and are in the first two years of life insurance coverage, you go boating, fall overboard, and drown. Under insurance law, suicide deaths are not covered during the first two years of the policy, and it is up to your beneficiary to prove that it was not suicide. It is difficult to prove a negative, so the insurance company might try to weasel out of paying the claim.

I have changed insurance carriers because of the rising costs in both health care and keyman insurance costs. However, reading this story has opened my eyes to the fact that I maybe forfeiting death benefits for my employees survivors, as well as my own. What can I do better when selecting an insurance company?

[Joseph Decarlo]

These people who are making all this money off the pain and suffering of those who have dedicated their lives to working for better watch their backs. All that money comes from somewhere, and the people are going to get their money one way or another..

[dave]

doesnt it make you want to work for those scumbags at spherion..nothing like lying to your employees to screw them over and save money in the process

[Just another poster]

OMG wrote:

What an outrageous abuse of corporate power. That poor widow. I don't know how these corporate thugs sleep at night.

Very soundly. Their job is to protect the bottom line - to put more and more money in the their own hands and those of the stockholders. Employees are simply something to be utilized -

[Abner]

FatSean wrote:

Don't worry! These vague over-reaching laws will only be used against 'bad people', never good regular Americans.
They always tell you this, and you always lap it up.

Not sure I understand..

My friend (the closest thing I had to a sister) was told she had bruised her tailbone..not to worry..but it kept getting worse. Two years later she went to a doctor out of her network..told her she had cancer. Extensive treatments..etc., etc. The insurance co. stopped paying her med cost of over 2500.00 per month because she had survived more than the three year max allowed for this terminal condition..and the cap of 350,000.00 had been reached.
Make a long one short..she died leaving her hard working (not a "bad guy") with several hundred thousand in unpaid medical. He lost the small farm, his job and almost died himself from grief, stress and alcohol abuse.
He filed for damages against the 1st dr's mis-diagnosis and the insurance co. for denying benefits.
I know of a few other stories that are similar.

[Jadee]

My child is a medic who serves locally with great pride and dedication. I am truly saddened by this incident. My heart goes out to the family -- a child who will grow up not knowing her dad. Is our govt in denial about these post truamatic situations experienced by our children when they return home? Where is our govt when our children return home, many of these young men have barely had a life! Have'nt we learned from Vietnam? We lost a significant number of our men within a specific age range due to post vietnam medical issues. It's time for all America to pray for a change. Our Intercessory Prayer group will pray for the family and all of our service men active or non-active.

[Abner]

I forgot to add that he was unable to collect anything from anybody.

[lakerman1]

caring employer, the two year exclusion rule on suicide is standard language. If you are changing insurance carriers every two years, you are being hustled by an agent. If you are a small businessman, there may be group insurance available that gives you a decent rate, without th need to frequently change carriers. Check with your professional association or chamber of commerce. They may be able to help you.

[Caring Employer]

Thanks lakerman1. I am a small business who used to be with the association's insurance. However, their benefits started dwindling and their rates started rising, so we decided to start shopping around. I'm going to get a benefits attorney and describe to him exactly what I would like to prevent from happening. I feel sorry for the Amschwand Family, it seems that they certainly do not deserve the outcome of the law.