GROUND ZERO LABORER DANIEL ARRIGO, DISABLED AND EVICTED, IS STILL WAITING FOR HIS WORKERS COMP MONEY

http://gangbox.wordpress.com/2009/05/16/ground-zero-laborer-daniel-arrigo-disabled-and-evicted-is-still-waiting-for-his-workers-comp-money/



Pokress for News

Construction worker Daniel Arrigo worked at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attack and now suffers from several respiratory illnesses.

For 9/11 responder Daniel Arrigo, trapped in a broken body, every day is a battle. A battle to breathe, to make ends meet and to get what he says is his due.

The 53-year-old disabled construction worker and father of three, who often clocked 70-hour weeks in a four-month cleanup at Ground Zero, has been waiting almost a year for his workers’ compensation claim to be approved.

Like thousands of other 9/11 responders who got sick, Arrigo is caught between the slow-moving state compensation board and insurance firms that skillfully fight 9/11 claims.

“It makes me so angry,” said Arrigo, who has been locked in a protracted fight with insurance giant Zurich North America. The firm covered Tishman Construction, which employed Arrigo as a flagman at 140 West St. after the terrorist attack.

“If you read any of my medical reports, it says I’ve got the same thing that 20,000 other people down there had.”

Doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center’s World Trade Center Medical Monitoring clinic have diagnosed Arrigo with severe lung disease from toxic dust, fumes and vapors he inhaled on the job. He has also got bronchitis and gastric reflux.

FULL story at link.

It is their JOB to pay out claims. That is what they are paid to do by their clients. But because their priority is keeping money for profits they Refuse to do the job that their clients pay them for.

In an ideal world that should result in them getting hammered for breach of contract. In addition to having to pay out claims they should be forced to pay out penalties.

They are obligated to maximize profits. The best way for an insurance company to maximize profits is to deny claims. So when it comes right down to it, their job is to deny claims, not pay them.

This is NOT the way that you treat people who labour for the state.