(This post is part of Brave New Films’ 16 Deaths Per Day campaign, for which I am a blogger fellow.)
Steven Greenhouse reports in the New York Times that employers are routinely underreporting illnesses and injuries to their workers.
The report, by the G.A.O., the auditing arm of Congress, said many employers did not report workplace injuries and illnesses for fear of increasing their workers’ compensation costs or hurting their chances of winning contracts.
The report also said workers did not report job-related injuries because they feared being fired or disciplined and worried that their co-workers might lose rewards, like bonuses or steak dinners, as part of safety-based incentive programs.
“The widespread underreporting so clearly documented in this report is undermining the health and safety of American workers,” said Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa and chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “If we don’t know the full extent of the workplace hazards workers face, we cannot fully address these risks.”
Mr. Harkin was one of the Congressional leaders who requested the report.
It’s hard to even determine the problems with workplace safety when employers are systematically undermining the data. And it’s impossible for industry to take credit for declines in workplace injuries and even fatalities if the official data cannot be trusted (that decline can also be attributed to the overall decline in the workforce due to the recession, too, as well as the decline in staffing at the agencies that keep the records). In fact, the GAO report concluded that OSHA may have failed to account for “up to two-thirds of all workplace injuries and illnesses.”
See, OSHA relies on data from employers for a bulk of its surveying about workplace safety. That’s right, the foxes write up the reports about the henhouse. When you start talking to people other than the site managers, some interesting statistics crop up:
The accountability office also found that more than a third of the occupational health practitioners it surveyed said that employers or workers had pressured them to provide insufficient medical treatment to hide or play down work-related injuries or illnesses.
The safety and health administration requires employers with more than 10 workers to record every work-related injury or illness that results in lost work time or medical treatment other than first aid. Some occupational health practitioners say that to avoid recording an injury, some employers will try to limit treatment for a serious injury to just first aid.
In other cases, the practitioners said, employers might seek alternative diagnoses if the initial diagnosis would result in a recordable injury or illness.
They want to avoid OSHA site inspections, which they know the agency is only equipped to perform on the most egregious violators. If you stay out of sight, you’ll be out of OSHA’s mind, in all likelihood.
When you read the independent reports, outside of OSHA, you begin to get the true picture of what American workplaces look like. In the low-wage market, there are all kinds of systematic violations, forcing employees to work longer hours for less pay – and these violations extend to health and safety. This stress and strain may account for the shocking rise in workplace suicides over the last year.
“This report confirms that when it comes to the documenting of workplace injuries, we can’t just take employers at their word,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington and chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety. “The system, to this point, has been all too easy to game.”
Be a part of a new and innovative Facebook project aimed towards the Latino community! ‘Cuentame’ will portray the rich culture, history, arts, and current events which revolve around this large part of the population. Participant must be bilingual, be VERY Facebook literate, and have a good sense of the Latino community.
Description of position:
Excellent written and verbal skills
Able to work well as part of a team
Working knowledge of Final Cut Pro
Heavy research
Looking for archival photos and video
Logging footage
Transcribing interviews
Translating interviews
We prefer someone that can devote 2 full days or 3 half days a week to this project as it is just starting and will need lots of attention. Attention to detail, a positive can do and pitch in attitude, and positive attitude will be required qualities in this position. Come work with a fun crowd on a one of a kind project!
You may know Andy Cobb from the series of humorous video sketches he’s done about Republicans, the media, and assorted inanities. But he works by day as an actor. And a few years ago, he was a commercial spokesman for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida. Now, he’s speaking out about the insurance industry in a new video produced by Brave New Films for their Sick For Profit campaign.
Andy, who lives in Los Angeles, describes himself as a “spokesjerk” put in front of the cameras by the industry to deliberately stand in the way of reform and maintain the status quo. He asks for solidarity from spokesjerks like him – the Sham-wow guy, for example – to stop pitching products that rip off Americans.
Here in Clatsop County, Oregon, we are just starting to fight a Wal-Mart super store from invading our beautiful area. Astoria is on the mouth of the Columbia River with a population of 10,000. The next town, about 3 miles south of Astoria, is Warrenton, population 4,600. There is wetlands all around Warrenton. Unfortunately, the City of Warrenton in enthralled with “Big Box” stores. There is a new super-sized Costco (the old one was too small) and a Home Depot. All this is along side a designated scenic by-way!
Now Wal-Mart is planning to grab their share of the wetlands, with the blessing of the city and most of the residents. Astoria will be hurt the most if this assault is accomplished. In the beginning of October, when the local newspaper finally announced that Wal-Mart was coming and it was a “done deal,” I was interviewed in the Daily Astorian about Wal-Mart and before I knew it, I said I would fight it. So to put my money where my mouth is, I enlisted help to fight it. It has been barely a month and we have come up with a name, Clatsop County Citizens for Responsible Development – CRD for short – distributed the Wal-Mart movie and did presentations to all three Chambers of Commerce, Warrenton City council and Astoria City Council, showed the movie for free at our locally owned movie theater, had a public meeting, formed a group with committees, got an experienced lawyer, an organizer who has experience with fighting Wal-Mart, and have an ever-evolving plan to beat them.
Now the hard part begins. Quite a few of us have been involved with recalling our county commissioners and fighting for over 5 years to stop liquefied natural gas (LNG). Some of the high stakes in these fights are the endangered Columbia River salmon that LNG import terminals and tankers will destroy. The experience of these other struggles will come in handy for keeping Wal-Mart out.
By Lori Durheim of Clatsop County Citizens for Responsible Development. For more information, you can email Lori at nolng@charter.net
The House and Senate will be voting on health care bills in a matter of weeks. But the forces behind the status quo have not quit in their efforts to derail the bill or at least get as many goodies out of it as they can.
The lobbying expenses of the top 13 health insurers and their industry association, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), spent nearly $8.2 million in the third quarter of 2009 to influence Congress on upcoming health care legislation, according to analysis released today by the nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog Public Campaign Action Fund (PCAF). The total marks an 11 percent increase over the pace of their spending in the first half of the year.
“Congress is marching toward passing landmark legislation to overhaul the health care system, and the health insurance industry is fighting them every step of the way,” said David Donnelly, national campaigns director of Public Campaign Action Fund. “These insurance giants may be running out of time, but clearly they haven’t run out of political cash.”
This brings the total in lobbying to nearly $23 million this year, including $6.3 million from AHIP, $3.5 million from WellPoint, $3.5 million from UnitedHealth and $2 million from Aetna. Humana, which has spent $1.85 million in lobbying fees this year, saw their earnings rise 65% in the third quarter, a lot of it off the wasteful Medicare Advantage program, which represents a corporate handout and which is earmarked for scale-backs in the health care bills. Majority Leader Reid’s office released this statement in response:
“It’s no wonder why Humana has been misleading seniors about health insurance reform — they saw their profits rise 65 percent last quarter and want to make sure the gravy train doesn’t end. The insurance industry is making billions by gaming the Medicare Advantage system, at the expense of seniors’ traditional Medicare coverage, and taxpayers are footing the bill.
“The American people have had enough, but unfortunately Senate Republicans have sided with insurers like Humana and are working to protect insurance industry profits over Americans’ health care needs. When we pass health insurance reform this year, this will all come to an end. Our seniors deserve better and American taxpayers should not be asked to pad the profits of the insurance industry.”
Insurers like Humana are ready to pounce on this legislation when it hits the floor in both Chambers, particularly in the Senate, where they will use the amendments process to try and cripple reform and the cloture process to outright kill it. But the insurance industry isn’t just fighting for their own self-preservation, they’re fighting the interests of the people.
My previous post intentionally left out mentions of Senator John Kerry’s defense of Ahmed Wali Karzai–the drug-dealing, election stealing, possibly Taliban-connected brother of the Afghan president–in an attempt to keep the piece to a manageable length. Boy, am I sorry I did that…today’s New York Times contains an article by Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti, James Risen and Helene Cooper that shows AWK is a CIA asset.
After today’s announcement from Harry Reid, adding a public option to the Senate health care bill, some might think that a great victory has been achieved. And it’s a significant accomplishment to this point. But we’re at the beginning of the end, not the end. And now that this public option, with a state opt-out, represents the lower bound of health care reform, you can bet that the insurance industry will redouble their efforts to kill the bill and retain the status quo. In fact, they’ve already started. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina has begun to lobby their customers to work against the bill, asking them to contact Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC). Not a front group, or some ad hoc organization funded by BC/BS. No, just the company itself.
(The mailer) reads:
Public option?
Government Cooperatives?
Community plan?
Single payer?
No matter what you call it, if the federal government intervenes in the private health insurance market, it’s a slippery slope to a single payer system.
Who wants that?
The enclosed postcard to Hagan reads:
Senator Hagan,
Please oppose government-run health insurance. We can meet our health care challenges without the government unfairly competing with the private sector. Tell Senate leaders that North Carolina doesn’t need government-run insurance.
They’ve also deployed lobbyists and shills to Capitol Hill to make completely dubious arguments. At a hearing about the insurance industry’s anti-trust exemption, this amazing exchange occurred:
University of Arkansas business professor Lawrence Powell, who testified on behalf of the medical malpractice insurance industry.
“The best possible outcome from repealing McCarran is continuation of the status quo,” he said. “However, it is also likely that repealing McCarran would have negative consequences for consumers, by decreasing competition and accuracy in insurance pricing.”
Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse pointed out that the professor was relying on outdated information.
“You cite for the proposition that insurance markets are highly competitive an article by Paul Joskow. Do I have the date of that article correct, it’s 1973?” he asked Powell. “I believe so,” came the answer.
And, they’ve started to push their message out to media, getting an AP reporter to buy the canard that poor, henpecked insurance companies just don’t make a lot of money.
WASHINGTON – Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They’re all more profitable than the health insurance industry.
The missing ingredient here is scale. Tupperware is more profitable than health insurance on a percentage basis, but 1/6 of the US economy doesn’t go through Tupperware. In real dollars, the insurance industry makes a mint. And remember, “profit” doesn’t count salaries, not even what’s given to CEOs.
The truth is that, even with this public option, insurers will do just fine in the health care bill. They get millions of new customers, with competition that is limited (not everyone can get the public plan, under even the most expansive version). But it’s just not good enough for them. The notion that they might have to offer coverage with actual benefits, and not cherry-pick the healthy to pay their premiums, which would cut into those profits, is just distasteful to them. So they will fight. And we will be ready.
As Afghan officials wrangle over their nation’s disputed election, the White House chief of staff said Sunday that President Obama won’t make a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan until that country has a credible government.
…
Obama won’t order more U.S. troops to Afghanistan until it forms a legitimate government, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said on CNN’s State of the Union.
Emanuel said that it would be “reckless to make a decision on U.S. troop levels” without a thorough analysis of Afghanistan’s ability to govern itself.
John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Afghanistan must prove to be a legitimate partner in the war against Taliban insurgents before the U.S. sends more troops. “It would be entirely irresponsible for the president of the United States to commit more troops to this country when we don’t even have an election finished and know who the president is and what kind of government we’re working with,” Kerry, D-Mass., told the CNN program during a visit to Kabul. Continue reading →
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is showing his Bush Administration credentials by tossing around any and all justifications for continued U.S. military action in Afghanistan to see what sticks. Lately, he’s been pushing the goofy idea that we have to maintain or expand our military presence in Afghanistan so that extremists can never brag to their friends.
There have been plenty of reasons given for keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan: denying Al Qaeda and their allies a sanctuary, saving the locals from some rather ruthless theocrats, preventing another 9/11. To that Defense Secretary added a different rationale Monday night. He wants to keep Osama’s legions from scoring a propaganda win.
…Defining al-Qaeda as both an ideology and an organization, Gates said their ability to successfully “challenge not only the United States, but NATO — 42 nations and so on” on such a symbolically important battlefield would represent “a hugely empowering message” for an organization whose narrative has suffered much in the eight years since 9/11.
