Academic

TENNESSEE?S SICK NUCLEAR WORKERS HAVE GOTTEN A BILLION DOLLARS, but there?s a catch: ?Bell said muc?

By Glenn Reynolds

TENNESSEE’S SICK NUCLEAR WORKERS HAVE GOTTEN A BILLION DOLLARS, but there’s a catch: “Bell said much more money has been spent on compensation than on medical benefits. That probably means the program came too late to help many sick workers when they really needed it and it went to their survivors instead, he said.”

UPDATE: A former student emails:

The EEOICPA pays up to $400,000 per family. To collect, workers have to have certain types of illnesses and must have worked in specific locations during specific times. Workers must prove their degree of disability in order to collect. My step-father was diagnosed in early 2006 with a qualifying-type of cancer after working at ORNL during qualifying windows of time. I went around and around with the Departments of Energy and Labor, who each have a hand in administering the program. By the end of 2006, it was clear that he was not going to make it, and the DOL finally agreed that he was fully disabled. They approved him in early January for compensation. The last time he signed his name was on that paperwork. He died two weeks later. The funds appeared in the bank two weeks after that. Once the government realized he had died before the check arrived, they reversed the payment. They eventually paid my mother a survivor’s benefit, which was $100k less than they would have had to pay.

They have everything to gain and nothing to lose by dragging their feet until the worker dies, because survivors can’t collect as much as an injured worker.

If a private company did this it would be a big media scandal. But since it’s the government . . . .

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on May 27, 2009 (boomark / email).