In Government We Trust

Puncture Wounds

Bureaucracies, it is universally believed, are costly, inefficient boondoggles.  Nevertheless, hope does spring eternal in the human breast.  Equally universal is the belief that a bureaucracy can be reformed, made better.  A tweak here, a personnel change there, a reform or two and hey presto, a new bright shiny efficient common-sense bureaucracy will emerge. 

We believe the idiocy of bureaucracy is an inevitable result when governments exceed the mandate given them by the Almighty.  Breaking divinely appointed bounds inevitably means that bad consequences will follow.  Costly, inefficient, stupid boondoggles are the consequence of expansionist government. 

New Zealand has a socialist accident compensation system.
  All accidents are paid for by the state--that is, the taxpayer.  This requires that the government regulate and administer the funding, the treatment, and the rehabilitation of everyone who suffers an accident.  It is a no-fault system, so one can be suffer an accident as a result of extremely foolish behaviour--but the government pays out.  No questions asked. 

Socialist zealots tell us that our Accident Compensation system is the best in the world.  It is pretty close to nirvana.  Its "glory" is that it is universal.  Everyone gets compensated.  Everyone gets treated. 

But if you peel back the bedcovers, beneath lies a putrid mess.  A bureaucratic mess.  An inevitable bureaucratic mess.  When civil government sets out to get bigger than the Almighty, bad consequences follow. 

Here is a little expose in the NZ Herald. 

A grazed knee, insect bites, a splinter in a finger - the Accident Compensation Corporation is paying out for the most minor of injuries, even if parents don't ask for it.  While ACC is required by law to cover all physical injuries resulting from an accident, some Herald readers have been startled to find out what has been deemed worthy of taxpayers' money.  In many cases, claims are not lodged by claimants, but by doctors who must ensure the paper trail starts on the right track should an injury worsen.

ACC has assigned case managers to a 4-year-old who went to the doctor to have a splinter removed from an infected finger, and a 3-year-old who was bitten by insects. Another woman, who asked not to be named, received a letter from ACC after her 17-year-old daughter scraped her knees at Auckland's Macleans College. The school nurse gave her a couple of bandages - and lodged a claim with ACC. "The people cost involved in doing all of that," the mother said. "For a plaster ... I don't think we will be requiring any follow-up treatment at the taxpayer's expense.  How many stubbed toes can you put through, just in case one day it turns out to be something?"

Clearly there is something wrong here.  The ACC needs reforming.  Get rid of the stupid wasteful bureaucratic idiots running the system.  Not so fast.

But ACC, doctors and schools say that although such bureaucracy can seem over the top, lodging a claim creates an essential paper trail should an injury worsen.  Secondary Principals' Association president Patrick Walsh said schools reported all injuries to ACC after being stung for not doing so.

"The classic examples are sprained ankles ... it gets treated, no ACC form is filled out and subsequently you find out there is quite a serious fracture in the ankle.  "It requires extensive and expensive treatment. And then you get the parents wanting the original form ... and the doctors, and ACC."

What is over the top is the attempt by civil government to take over the role of God Himself and become the one who providentially superintends and takes care of mankind.  When perverse statists attempt such a utopian project, bad consequences follow.  Inevitably. 

But Aucklander Gillian Richards said she was still bemused her 4-year-old son Daniel has an ACC file after going to the doctor to have a splinter removed from his finger which had become infected.  "It just seemed a bit over the top. He's in a kindergarten, and every scraped knee and banged elbow is documented, and we get a letter at home."

Alasdair McIntosh said he and his wife were baffled when they received a letter from ACC early this month saying their 3-year-old daughter Danielle's injury was covered.  "The wife and I are looking at each other going, 'What injury has she had?"'  Mr McIntosh phoned ACC, and was told his daughter's injuries were insect bites for which the family doctor had prescribed an ointment after a visit last month.  "We sort of laughed about because insect bites hardly rate as an accident ..."

 Oh, no.  Insect bites are serious accidents.  Why?  Well, they are wounds.  All it takes is for one to go septic and forever after the treatment of all insect bites falls under the providential care of the divinised state. 

An ACC spokesman said because insect bites were classified as "puncture wounds" they were deemed an injury.

Insect bites a "puncture wound".  Such idiocy is inevitable when civil governments rebel against the Living God and overreach themselves.  Rebellion against God has inevitable consequences--bad consequences.  Idiotic, inept bureaucracy is one of them.