JOPLIN, Mo. • By all accounts, Mark Lindquist is a hero, a social worker who nearly gave his life trying to save three developmentally disabled adults from the Joplin tornado. Both houses of the Missouri Legislature honored Lindquist, the Senate resolution calling him "a true hero and inspiration to others."
But heroism doesn't pay the bills. The tornado's 200 mph wind tossed Lindquist nearly a block, broke every rib, obliterated a shoulder, knocked out most of his teeth and put him in a coma for about two months.
Lindquist's medical expenses exceed $2.5 million, and the bills keep coming. He requires 11 daily prescriptions and will need more surgery.
But he has no medical insurance. Lindquist, 51, couldn't afford it on a job paying barely above minimum wage. He assumed workers' compensation would cover his bills, but his claim was denied "based on the fact that there was no greater risk than the general public at the time you were involved in the Joplin tornado," according to a letter to Lindquist from Accident Fund Insurance Company of America, his company's workers' comp provider.
The key here? Mr. Lindquist was at work. Mr. Lindquist was following the training that his employer gave him for situations just like this. Mr. Lindquist was a hero helping the disabled and sacrificed his body in doing so.
Now the Workers' Comp insurance carriers don't want to pay for his on the job injuries.
This is part of a national movement to protect Insurance Companies who don't want to do their jobs. You and I would call that fraud but they call it good business. They want to change the law to look at what sort of risk he was under instead of following the normal considerations:
Did the injury occur within the course and scope of your employment? end of story.
Now the insurance companies want to re-write the rulebook state by state and have the final say who can be defined as 'hurt on the job' no matter what logic or reasonableness might dictate. You can expect to see more of this sort of thing in state legislatures nationwide.
