New Detroit Police Officers Medically uninsured for the first 90 days

**cla1945** · February-27-14, 11:45 AM

Just when I thought the City of Detroit couldn't get any worse, I read this. Cut pay, cut insurance for the disabled, higher premiums for the working person, cut medical benefits for aged retirees, cut pensions, now this...

At this rate, there won't be anyone working for Detroit anymore. Can't afford to and there certainly aren't any incentives to draw qualified people. Soon, felons will be patrolling the streets, in uniform, with a gun, to protect and serve Detroiters, because no one else will want the jobs. Terrible thought.

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/24...-first-90-days

**Meddle** · February-27-14, 12:24 PM

That's pretty normal. They'll be in training for 6 months or more anyways. If something happens there, they'll be covered in other ways.

**cla1945** · February-27-14, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by Meddle

That's pretty normal. They'll be in training for 6 months or more anyways. If something happens there, they'll be covered in other ways.

What other ways?

**jt1** · February-27-14, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by cla1945

Just when I thought the City of Detroit couldn't get any worse, I read this. Cut pay, cut insurance for the disabled, higher premiums for the working person, cut medical benefits for aged retirees, cut pensions, now this...

At this rate, there won't be anyone working for Detroit anymore. Can't afford to and there certainly aren't any incentives to draw qualified people. Soon, felons will be patrolling the streets, in uniform, with a gun, to protect and serve Detroiters, because no one else will want the jobs. Terrible thought.

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/24...-first-90-days

Nobody will be left in Detroi! Wait, you can't cut my pension, the taxpayers in the city should continue paying for it.

**Spartan** · February-27-14, 01:26 PM

This isn't unusual, many of the jobs I've applied for didn't offer any benefits until 90 days after hire. Essentially, they are 3-month contract-to-hire positions where the new hire is not officially a full-time employee until after the contract term.

**Meddle** · February-27-14, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by cla1945

What other ways?

Workmen's Comp for one.

Certainly if a city employee is hurt on the job, the city will pay their medical bills.

General health insurance benefits are often withheld for 3 months, sometimes longer.

**cla1945** · February-27-14, 03:12 PM

Originally Posted by Meddle

Workmen's Comp for one.

Certainly if a city employee is hurt on the job, the city will pay their medical bills.

General health insurance benefits are often withheld for 3 months, sometimes longer.

Ask Doogie, the firefighter that was paralyzed when a wall fell on him and two other firemen a couple of years ago...CofD cut his disability, isn't paying his bills, and more or less told him to go F himself.

**Honky Tonk** · February-27-14, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by cla1945

Just when I thought the City of Detroit couldn't get any worse, I read this. Cut pay, cut insurance for the disabled, higher premiums for the working person, cut medical benefits for aged retirees, cut pensions, now this...

At this rate, there won't be anyone working for Detroit anymore. Can't afford to and there certainly aren't any incentives to draw qualified people. Soon, felons will be patrolling the streets, in uniform, with a gun, to protect and serve Detroiters, because no one else will want the jobs. Terrible thought.

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/24...-first-90-days

What do you mean "soon"?

**motz** · February-27-14, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by Meddle

Workmen's Comp for one.

Certainly if a city employee is hurt on the job, the city will pay their medical bills.

General health insurance benefits are often withheld for 3 months, sometimes longer.

Yeah, I've only had one job where benefits started 30 days after hiring, and that is definitely a huge exception to the general rule of "90 day probation-like state" followed by full benefits, paid time off, sometimes wage increases, etc.

**MikeyinBrooklyn** · February-27-14, 03:38 PM

This is standard for insurance policies most people have. And, yes, as an employer, CofD would be required to pay for work-related illness and injury, primarily through worker's comp insurance [[although in some instances it makes more sense for the city to pay claims rather than pass them along to the insurance company). I can't say this is a great policy [[especially when you need to pass a physical to get hired), but it is understandable.

I would hope the 90 day waiting period applies to all city employees, not just emergency people.

**Meddle** · February-27-14, 05:52 PM

You also have to consider that quite a few of them will get washed out of the Academy, so why pay benefits from Day One for people who won't ever see the streets?

**Lowell** · February-27-14, 06:02 PM

Another argument for single payer national health. Canada and other countries have to be grimacing at this contradiction. At least under affordable care, these newbie cops can get covered - regardless of risk factors or past health issues.

Lack of national health for all is ultimately a huge cost to business, governments and individuals. No wonder we pay twice as much per person with lower outcomes and life expectancy than all other countries in the world. Extend medicare to all. It's just that simple.

**Cliffy** · February-27-14, 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by Lowell

Another argument for single payer national health. Canada and other countries have to be grimacing at this contradiction. At least under affordable care, these newbie cops can get covered - regardless of risk factors or past health issues.

Lack of national health for all is ultimately a huge cost to business, governments and individuals. No wonder we pay twice as much per person with lower outcomes and life expectancy than all other countries in the world. Extend medicare to all. It's just that simple.

Amen Lowell. Only industrialized country in the world that runs this dumb system. Unfortunately, the right wing minimum wage idiots are against it.

**Wesley Mouch** · February-28-14, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by cla1945

Ask Doogie, the firefighter that was paralyzed when a wall fell on him and two other firemen a couple of years ago...CofD cut his disability, isn't paying his bills, and more or less told him to go F himself.

This doesn't ring true. Michigan has strong workman's compensation rules that cover workplace injuries very well. If there's a case where this isn't true -- there's probably something much more complex going on. Cities can't just yank workman's compensation coverage legally. This is probably a fringe case involving fraud, abuse, or facts.

For the most part, your general health coverage does NOT cover workplace injuries. Workers Compensation insurance for workplace injuries is already mandatory and mostly comprehensive.

**cla1945** · February-28-14, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch

This doesn't ring true. Michigan has strong workman's compensation rules that cover workplace injuries very well. If there's a case where this isn't true -- there's probably something much more complex going on. Cities can't just yank workman's compensation coverage legally. This is probably a fringe case involving fraud, abuse, or facts.

For the most part, your general health coverage does NOT cover workplace injuries. Workers Compensation insurance for workplace injuries is already mandatory and mostly comprehensive.

We're talking City of Detroit here. All I know is that the City isn't paying medical bills for him that they are responsible for. I also know that another firefighter brother was injured on the job, [[shoulder), had surgery, began therapy to get the shoulder moving and the City stopped paying the doctor bills. The doctor refused to take any City of Detroit employees who had been injured on the job because Detroit stopped paying. This isn't just starting, it's been going on for many months.

**SWMAP** · February-28-14, 02:36 PM

"In a video commentary on the station's website, LeDuff brings the story of Brendan Milewski, a Detroit firefighter left paralyzed by an accident on the job. On Aug. 13, 2010, Milewski was fighing a fire when a chunk of limestone shattered his seventh thoracic vertebra. He's now a T6 paraplegic.
"It's a complete loss of identity for me, to be in this position now and not amongst my peers, and seen as weak and feeble and handicapped and disabled," Milewski said. "I hate all these words. I hate that they describe me."However, because of the bankruptcy and belt-tightening, Milewski received notice that his health care will be terminated by the city of Detroit on Jan. 1, 2014. He will receive $200 a month as a stipend toward other health coverage. For Milewski, it's a bitter pill to swallow given his history of service.
"When there's a school shooting, or when there's a building fire or a whatever, a car accident, hazardous chemical release, soldiers don't show up. When you call 911, we do. We're the first line of defense. And sacrificing our lives, our health, one would only assume that we would be taken care of. ... The benefits that we got, they weren't given to us. They were earned."

**Honky Tonk** · February-28-14, 02:58 PM

Originally Posted by SWMAP

"In a video commentary on the station's website, LeDuff brings the story of Brendan Milewski, a Detroit firefighter left paralyzed by an accident on the job. On Aug. 13, 2010, Milewski was fighing a fire when a chunk of limestone shattered his seventh thoracic vertebra. He's now a T6 paraplegic.
"It's a complete loss of identity for me, to be in this position now and not amongst my peers, and seen as weak and feeble and handicapped and disabled," Milewski said. "I hate all these words. I hate that they describe me."However, because of the bankruptcy and belt-tightening, Milewski received notice that his health care will be terminated by the city of Detroit on Jan. 1, 2014. He will receive $200 a month as a stipend toward other health coverage. For Milewski, it's a bitter pill to swallow given his history of service.
"When there's a school shooting, or when there's a building fire or a whatever, a car accident, hazardous chemical release, soldiers don't show up. When you call 911, we do. We're the first line of defense. And sacrificing our lives, our health, one would only assume that we would be taken care of. ... The benefits that we got, they weren't given to us. They were earned."

Rent or go see "Burn". His story is part of the documentary. Talk about life's injustice......

**cla1945** · February-28-14, 06:50 PM

BURN is an excellent documentary about the DFD and the brothers and sisters who run into fires when everyone else is running out. Doogie is featured as well as a very close relative of mine. Brenna Sanchez and Tom Putnam produced and directed this up close view of the DFD. It's chilling to watch, as Dave Parnell voiced, "I wish my head could forget what my eyes have seen in 32 years of firefighting".

**Wesley Mouch** · March-01-14, 01:37 AM

Originally Posted by cla1945

We're talking City of Detroit here. All I know is that the City isn't paying medical bills for him that they are responsible for. ...

Comment respectfully withdrawn. Its Motortown, Jake.

So I believe that the City machinery is somehow not fulfilling its legal obligation to workmans comp. But I do hope that this is a mistake, not a policy action.

**cla1945** · March-01-14, 09:12 AM

I heard yesterday that they have "reconsidered" their decision and are making changes. I hope the changes mean that all employees who have become disabled due to a job related injury while on City of Detroit time will be covered and their medical bills, therapy payments, prescriptions, etc., will be taken care of. I still think the CofD has turned into a heartless entity and are out to screw everyone except the lawyers...who, incidentally, are laughing all the way to the bank.