Un-Saif at any speed
I see that the Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that Saif, the quasi-governmental (a.k.a. quasi-accountable) workers' compensation agency, is "private" enough to be sued for alleged violations of people's federal constitutional rights. As it should be.
Could this be a harbinger of where the court's going on the OHSU liability limit lawsuit? Only time will tell. The Legislature didn't do a darn thing with that one, as far as I can see. I'm sure the old boys and girls on the hill are hoping the court will let them off the hook without having to go groveling before the legislators in the upcoming special session.
The precise legal issues in the cases are different, but the moral and policy issues are the same. These vaguely defined pork pots that the Goldschmidt crew have created want things both ways -- public when you try to sue them, but private when you want to watch over what they're doing. The new Saif decision strikes a blow against that.
| Posted at 10:08 AM | Permalink |
|
Comments (7)
Sometimes I wish lawyers had prohibitions against "churning the account".
Posted by David E Gilmore | July 27, 2007 11:47 AM
This has been a long-brewing issue with OHSU. Once a fully public entity, they were able - with the help of Goldschmidt and his pals - to bamboozle their way into becoming a "private" organization. But not too private. The plan was to retain state institutional protections or barriers while gaining the right to profit from research. Sort of like Orwell's "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" line.
Posted by Max | July 27, 2007 12:48 PM
The whole workman's comp is a sad cruel joke on the working class. I once saw the criteria of how much an eye was worth and loss of one arm Etc. Etc. Another suit proofing of industry and SAIF just screwed the worker a little tighter.
Posted by KISS | July 27, 2007 1:05 PM
"The whole workman's comp is a sad cruel joke on the working class".
Yes, it is. I remember a couple years back when someone,it may have been Vicki Walker, was calling for an investigation. I couldn't help but think, when attorney Douglas Swanson was murdered, that he probably would have been one of the best witnesses to abuses in the state.
Posted by Cynthia | July 27, 2007 1:11 PM
Well, I'm not sure where I would come down on this issue. Employers in Oregon have a choice of buying WorkER's Compensation insurance on the open market or buying it from SAIF. Most smaller businesses find it is cheaper from SAIF than from private insurers. They probably wouldn't want to see SAIF disappear as a choice...
Posted by PG | July 27, 2007 1:51 PM
Once SAIF is on a level playing field with the open market their rates may not be cheaper.
Posted by Bark Munster | July 27, 2007 2:31 PM
Once SAIF is on a level playing field with the open market their rates may not be cheaper.
From the standpoint of possibly losing the limitation of statutory liability, yes. However, as a not-for-profit, SAIF does rebate premiums back to insureds when experience is better than anticipated. The open market insurers are loathe to do that.
Posted by PG | July 27, 2007 2:47 PM