VotersInjuredatWork.org, Consumer Leaders Pressure AIG on Treatment of Injured Workers

Injured workers and consumer advocates on Thursday demanded that the world’s largest insurer, AIG, “stop cheating injured workers out of needed medical care,” and demanded “restitution” for AIG’s practice of not paying injured workers’ compensation on time. The injured workers and consumer leaders also called for an investigation into whether the workers’ compensation insurance giant “cheated California taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars.”

“AIG is cheating injured workers out of their medical care and compensation, and may have cheated taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars through insurance fraud,” said Mark Hayes, president of VotersInjuredatWork.org, at a news conference outside the governor’s Los Angeles office. “Insurance companies manipulate their books and manipulate the system to avoid paying injured workers for care and compensation.”

“We’re fed up with injured workers being called frauds by scofflaws like AIG as they defraud the public and the injured workers they’ve insured. We demand a complete audit of AIG and a full, formal investigation into the fraud they’ve committed. We demand restitution of all monies they’ve withheld from injured workers and the people of California.”

VotersInjuredatWork.org, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, and the Consumer Federation of California charged that the company is denying injured workers medical care and may be avoiding payment of millions of dollars owed to the people of California. “Governor Schwarzenegger never stands up to his donors, and AIG has given him nearly $150,000. That’s why the Governor has not called AIG to account for apparently defrauding the state’s taxpayers and businesses, and it’s why he has sat back and let AIG cheat injured California workers,” said Doug Heller of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

“AIG is the world’s largest commercial insurance company, and it is benefiting immensely from denying injured workers’ the care and compensation they need and deserve,” added Richard Holober, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California, at the Sacramento news conference. “Insurance carriers are reporting that their California workers’ compensation line of business continues to provide record profits. AIG, the state’s largest private workers’ compensation insurer, reported record profits of $11.05 billion for 2004, up 19% over 2003. It should be a crime to victimize injured workers and the people of California and then pocket the rewards of your own fraud and misconduct.”