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SEN.
COLAPIETRO: Thank you for your testimony.
Was there anybody who didn't sign up?
Why
don't
you sign up now and
we'll finish it, the
three
of you. Come on
down and get in line over
here.
Why don't you step right up there and just
announce your name for the record?
SANDRA
TERRILL: Yes. My name is Sandra Terrill and I
just
wanted to tell you, you
heard a few
testimonies
on what these
injuries do to a family.
It's
totally devastating to
a family, it literally
rips
them apart.
The
only thing I really want
to say is, you have to
do
something with the
commissioners. They have to
be
able to make a decision.
We go to a hearing, my
husband's
been waiting for
three months for back
surgery
that is needed.
He has what we have been
told
by everyone in the
state, two of the best
doctors
in the state of
Connecticut, everyone
agrees.
We
go to the hearing.
This is twice. Our lawyer
says
what has to be done,
the insurance company's
attorney
says, we agree.
This is within the
state's
statutes. This
is what needs to be done.
The
lawyer says, but, when
we get to EBI, they
could
just throw this right
out. (inaudible) will
say
we're crazy and that
will be it and the
insurance
commissioner says
my hands are tied.
Untie
their hands.
REP.
LAWLOR: Thank you very much, Mrs. Terrill. We
appreciate
it. Any
questions? Is there anyone
else
who has not been, who
has not testified who
would
like to testify?
Just go to that table.
Just
state your name,
please.
ANTHONY
MADDEN: My name's Anthony Madden and I was
here
with Program Review
when they did similar to
this,
too. A couple of
problems. First, you're
talking
about cutting the
benefits. I think the
first
thing you should look
at is to make sure the
people
are getting the
benefit.
I've
gone through so many
things here. Three
minutes
is kind of short,
but one thing I'm asking
the
committee is Program
Review gave me a letter to
go
to the Chief State's
Attorney's Office.
Inspector
Rizzo came down,
looked into my case. I
have,
as far as I'm
considered, fraud used in my
case,
lies, and misconduct
of a Commissioner.
Today
I just had a formal
hearing. Commissioner
Verrilli
down in Bridgeport.
I brought up the
points
which were given to
the Commissioner, of
everything
that was wrong
and he refused to hear it
today.
All
he would listen to today
was that I never had a
myeloma,
the doctor said it
was an erroneous
mistake.
I don't know
anybody else to turn to.
I've
been to the Governor's
Office, I've been to
Program
Review. I've
been up to Mr. Blumenthal's
Office.
The Chief
Inspector's Office did do an
investigation,
but only as
far as the myelogram
went.
When
a personnel manager
comes in from a shop and
testifies
that there's no
light duty and I don't
know,
maybe a matter of a
month or so later, at a
formal
hearing again, he
testifies yes, there is
light
duty, only for 30
days, I think that's a
little
bit of fraud or
whatever else you want to
call
it. He lied under
oath and everything else,
and
as an injured person,
you have nobody to turn
to
get help.
I've
come with many people
from the group justice
and
also with the injured
people for injured
rights.
There's too
much going wrong. As an
injured
person, you have no
place to go to to get
help,
and you want to cut
benefits. People aren't
receiving
the benefits.
The insurance companies
laugh
because they have
enough money where they
could
outwait you for years
and years. I mean
here,
from 1989, we went to
1991. Here's 1993.
Now
I got to go contest this
whole formal all over
again.
This is causing
the backlogs, because the
Commissioner's
neglecting to
do his job.
If
he listened to the case
that he messed up first
thing
today, it would be all
over, maybe. I don't
know.
But now I have
to go and contest this all
over.
That's why I
grabbed Mr. Frankel earlier,
but
he didn't want to talk
because he'll probably
have
to hear the case again.
I'm
just here really to ask
the committee to ask
the
Chief State's Attorney's
Office to look into
this
again, because I don't
know whey they only did
a
little bit of an
investigation and neglected to
look
at the rest. I
could prove it. I have the
facts.
If you have
fraud and misconduct and stuff,
somebody
should look at it.
I don't know who else
to
turn to. Thank you
very much.
SEN.
COLAPIETRO: Thank you very much. Questions from
the
committee members?
Thank you very much. Frank
Guerrera.
The one left
is . . . .
FRANK
GUERRERA: My name is Frank Guerrera and I was
injured
in 1983. I
lost my arm, fractured my
skull,
my back and when I
reached maximum
improvement,
I went for a
hearing and they
proceeded
to tell me that I
could go back to light
duty
and when my lawyer
said, "What kind of light
duty
could he do?", the
lawyer for the insurance
company
said, "Well,
they put a lot of restrictions
on
him." So my
lawyer said, "What kind of
restrictions?"
He
says, "Well, he can't sit for
more
than half an hour;
can't stand for more than
an
hour; and can't lift more
than five pounds." I
mean
do you realize how many
doors that opened up
for
me?
So
then they said that's too
bad, but you'll have
to
try and get a job so I
tried. As I was going
out,
the Commissioner, in
all his glory said to me,
"Did
you know the state
of Connecticut has a
retraining
program? I
hear a lot of these
businessmen
talk about
training programs". I said,
"No,
I didn't."
He said, "Would you be
interested?"
I
said, "Naturally. I worked all my
life."
So
they gave me the man's
name and I went down
there
and he asked me what
happened. I told him
and
I showed him and he
looked at me and I said can
you
help me and he said
you'd make a good book end.
He
started to laugh.
The man was starting to
laugh.
But that didn't
suffice. Naturally when
they
said I could go back to
light duty, they cut
my
benefits right away.
When
I was having a hard
time managing my house and
my
kids and everything, I
complained a little and
somebody
said to me, why
don't you go on welfare?
Why
don't I go on welfare?
In other words, get
the
insurance company off
the hook. Throw it onto
the
backs of the taxpayers,
right? Let them pay.
They
can pay.
I
just would like to say,
that we know the
insurance
companies run this
state and I agree with
a
lot of these businessmen.
I'm speaking because
my
brother is a businessman,
and I tell you, if I
was
my brother, and I had to
pay what he has to pay
to
the insurance companies,
I think I would say
here,
take my business.
You run it and I'll go off
into
the sun.
I
just want to close by
saying that I'm non-union
and
with all the money that
I'm making with my
benefits,
I can't understand
why I'm here. I
should
be down in Florida.
Thanks a lot. Anybody
have
any questions?
REP.
EBERLE: Thank you very much, sir. Are there any
questions?
Thank you.
Sir, if you could please
state
your name for the
record.
DONALD
VACHON: My name is Donald Vachon. I'm employed
at
Electric Boat and I've
been there for about 12
years.
Back in 1988,
when I was introduced at
comp,
I filed for
(inaudible) disease. I had
problems
with my knees
because I had an accident
and
they, what we call a
"sonarsphere", it's like
working
inside of a vault.
So I threw my knees
out.
I also had a
heart attack, so that was a hell
of
a year for me.
I've
had problems with comp
since then. I was told
that
I could receive up to
two-thirds my pay, if I
go
into a light duty job.
I said fine. I'm still
applying
for that.
Five years later, I'm still
trying
to get up to
two-thirds of my wages. I was
out
of work for a period of
about 8 months. I went
into
a rehab. program in
1988. I was accepted. I
took
the physical. I
did everything else expected
and
all the tests I was
expected and I was
accepted.
But
EB called up and said
they had a job for me
that's
going to pay me $5.62
an hour. Here I was
making
$12 an hour. I had
to accept. I had no
choice.
Who's going to
hire a man with my
problems
at my age? I
talked with the social
worker,
I guess you can call
him, at comp. He said
I
had no choice. He
said I'm dropped from the comp
program.
I have to
accept the job that EB offered
me.
So
I went into EB, have had
problems with EB and
comp
ever since. I
applied for a credit card three
months
ago or five months
ago and was denied. The
simple
fact is when I got
the credit report that a
bill
back in 1988 was never
paid by comp. I
complained
to comp about
that. They're just
getting
around to paying now
on back in 1988. I've
received
numerous letters
from collecting agencies,
which
I submitted to comp.
One of them, the check
was
cut this past Thursday
on one of those letters.
So
benefits, I'm not getting
anything. I'm not
getting
any benefits.
I've been struggling with
minimum
wages or less for the
past five years. I
raised
heck in my family.
My wife and I couldn't
get
along because of
financial problems. I wound
up
getting divorced. I
would up losing my house
and
so I don't live at the
house any more. I had
to
move out.
But
the fact remains,
financially, there's no
future
at EB where I'm at,
doing what I'm earning.
With
comp, if I would have
had just what was
authorized
by comp, what
they promised they would
do,
without any hassle would
have been fine. I
wouldn't
be here today.
But there's a lot of hate;
a
lot of resentment towards
comp because they did
not
fulfill their own end of
the bargain. That's
all
I want. I want to
work. I don't want to go on
welfare.
I don't want
comp. I worked all my life
and
if I take two weeks
vacation, I'm lost after
two
weeks. I have to
work. That's my whole life.
That's
what I've done all my
life and that's what I
want
to do.
I
want to be
self-supporting. I want to be
responsible
for my own life
and live my life the
way
I want to live it.
Thank you for listening and
for
the privilege of
expressing myself.
SEN.
COLAPIETRO: Thank you. Questions? Anyone else
who
has not yet testified?
Okay, with that I'll
declare
this public hearing
at a close.
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