Re: A Call for 'Radical Change'

On 4 Feb 2007 17:33:09 -0800, "No_Money" <no_credit@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote something wonderfully witty:

Many good points made in this thread.

As far as being fully insured and happy... Yes, during the up swings
in my life I had some really good medical insurance. The problem is
some of us lose our good jobs. Many of us in my home state have to
stay on a job full time for a full year before we get offered any
company insurance. Not to mention all the single mothers I have seen
fired because they had a doctor's note telling the employer their sick
children needed somebody at home.

What is an employer to do with an employee that brings in a Dr's note
saying they have t stay home with a sick child long-term? Once the
protections under FMLA run out the employer needs someone on the job
and has very little choice but to replace the missing worker. Very
few business run off a social system model.


In other words: I have seen more
than my fair share of people FIRED flat out for medical reasons, and
many were good workers with doctor's excuses in writing.

But if the employee isn't there, and barely productive when there what
is an employer to do? Again, they don't make revenues off social
programs. Most companies offer things like sick leave banks, STD &
LTD, but a very low percentage of people actually sign up for them.
In my 500 person organization, the last time I ran the numbers, less
then 10% of our employees were insured under both our STD & LTD
offerings.

In the "Right
To Work" states, it's hard. I see companies with high turn over rates
that complain about nobody wanting to work....

Sometimes I get that feeling when fairly low-level jobs that just
about anyone could do go unfilled for extremely long periods of time.

Then I read in the
media of these same companies getting busted for hiring ileagle
aliens. Sometimes I think big business worries more about paying
company medical insurance than they do paying worker's salaries.

While I would never advocate the hiring of illegal's, I have found
that recent legal immigrants usually make one hell of a worker if you
can deal with communication problems.

Companies here have been rumored to discriminate against people for
being on their LEGALLY prescribed meds. After all, chronic pain
patients often get prescribed things like Oxycodone and Morphine. I
don't think it's legal, but I know that I'm having a very hard time
getting a job sense I have been put on Morphine. Almost every factory
job drug tests, many of them do random drug tests. I dont think it's
legal for a drug testing clinic to tell a boss what drugs an applicant
is on, unless it's a safety type job like driving a truck, flying a
plane, etc. Or if their positive for ileagle drugs. I feel I function
better on my meds, yet I can't get my foot back in the door because
things come to a stop upon every pre-employment drug test I take. They
see pain and nerve meds in a new applicant's system, and they don't
always seem to care if we have a prescription or not. They don't want
us.

It isn't legal. The protocol is a notification of pass or fail. A
prospective employee that brings their medications to the testing
location will have those medications taken into account when the test
is performed. All the HR department gets from the testing clinic is a
clean/dirty flag on a printout. If there is a valid reason for being
positive on any substance the result comes back as clean after the
prescription medication is taken into account.

So, where I live at, there are many people trapped in a crooked
system. If one is already in chronic pain, it's very hard to get hired
on as a new employee. I feel they misuse their preemployment drug
testing to screen for employees that will cost them more $$ on any
company offered medical insurance. So were trapped. The good jobs that
offer decent medical insurance make it almost impossible for the
average middle age chronic pain patient to get hired.

I think that is part paranoia, but companies that use pre-employment
physicals might be passing on people with pre-existing medical
problems that can be identified during a physical.

Disability is
very hard to prove if one's pain can't be explained. Nerve damage pain
effects many people, yet it's extremely hard to prove from a legal
point. There are a ton of people like me in America. We want to work.
We miss the good jobs we once had. So many are forced to sue for
disability, and yet some of us become burdens on our families because
we fear we can never qualify for a disability check.

But there are also those who when they do go back to work aren't able
to perform the critical elements of performance of the job, take to
many sick days, or are constantly coming in late/leaving early for
Dr's appointments. What some might refer to as problem children. Now
there are also many companies that will bend over backwards to
accommodate certain people with disabilities and even attempt to
attract them in their recruiting drives.

Supposedly being a disabled Veteran is supposed to give me priority
status on certain jobs, but I usually keep that fact to myself because
there can be the downsides of doing so as well.

No Money

--

You can run, but you'll only die tired.

ZombyWoof
.