A worker was criticized for suggesting that Alberta had the lowest premiums in North America. Alberta has the lowest premiums in North America and it can offer the low premiums because they have the highest rate of denial of claims in North America.
The following link will show just how high the premiums are in some other provinces as compared to Alberta and according to the news article, in order to be competitive and retain workers, Newfoundland and Labrador must do the same thing as Alberta and that is to deny more claims to reduce the costs of claims to retain business. The link to the story is here.
In reality, Newfoundland and Labrador are simply following the lead of WCB systems in other provinces and states. Rather than concentrate on reducing or eliminating accidents which is far too costly to do, the only other option is to deny legitimate claims and benefits and force workers onto the public system. This being the case, it would be much simpler to simply abolish the whole system and let the public system look after disabled workers, which is what is happening at the present time. Disabled workers in Alberta who are on AISH have recently received a $400.00 a month increase in disability benefits that increases their monthly total disability pensions to $1588.00 a month which includes free prescription medication, free eye care and glasses, subsidized rental, and the disabled worker can still earn $800.00 a month for a single person. This is paid for by employers and workers through taxes so what is the point in having workers compensation that denies legitimate claims and benefits, which forces employers to pay premiums and then forcing them to pay corporate taxes on top of all this to care for disabled workers who have their claims and benefits denied. This makes absolutely no sense to me at all. The only people who benefit from the system are employees of the “Board” and WCB network of opinionated doctors. Employers wind up paying twice and workers get nothing.
Gerry
