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Should the Gov't Pay For Injured Man's Wii?
An anonymous reader writes "Politicians in the Australian state of Victoria are currently locked in a debate about whether an injured man should be able to claim the cost of a Nintendo Wii for rehabilitation purposes under worker's compensation. The man's doctor apparently recommended he use the Wii Fit exercise device, but both insurance companies and the government itself have blocked the payment and have now ridiculed the idea as paying for video games. But with the Wii Fit increasingly being used for rehabilitation purposes internationally, does the man have a fair case?"
I'm not saying they should condone it, but a Wii is probably a lot cheaper than any other form of treatment or medication. Just saying.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
Since the Doctor suggested the Wii Fit, then I have no problems with the idea of the Government pay for the Wii Fit. If this were in the US, then I would agree that the Insurance company pay for it.
HOWEVER!
Since the Wii can be used for more than just the physical fitness applications, the Wii itself should not be paid for.
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
...there is more than one way to play...
Winning in a Wii game does not necessarily mean exercising.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Hey, it’s better than the $15000 a “officially accepted” device would cost, that would do the same job.
I say, it is completely irrelevant what the device was “supposed to be’. What counts is:
1. Did it help him?
2. Was it not pointlessly expensive?
And as it looks like that’s a yes, and a yes, I say: If you’d pay a “official” device, of course it should be paid. And you should be thankful that he didn’t take the $15000 device. ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Because the man can do the same exercises without the Wii, without the game.
Wii Fit is like a cheap personal trainer/motivator. No competent doctor is going to recommend it as a full replacement for a rehabilitation therapist. But they may recommend it as healthy, daily exercise. The same thing can be accomplished by handing the man a pamphlet, except Wii Fit motivates better.
Yes, Wii Fit should be recommended to motivate patients. No, a government shouldn't pay for this "extra motivation".
So what? You don't have to score points, just perform the motion and ignore the "game".
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reminds me of Roger Ebert's complaint that his insurance would pay $8000 for a bulky piece of crap machine with a keyboard to speak for him that sounded like a bad 60s Sci-fi robot but refused to pay $1000 for a macbook that could do the same thing much better.
The Insurance companies more than likely have a deal with the manufacturers of that bulky, ugly equipment so that they get a kickback on any purchases they support. Insurance companies are not about providing a useful service to their customers, they are about making as much money as possible while paying out the least amount possible.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
Worker's comp is a form of insurance.
Typically, it also comes with the provision that you cannot sue your employer for negligence, so business gets an enormous perk, and workers get fixed up so they continue to be productive for themselves and their families. Anyway, only complete retard would say that it would be better to be able to sue a company for millions, than pay $300 for a Wii.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
You do realize you're typing this on the Internet, which came from ARPANET, which was a military project funded by the government, right?
This signature serves no purpose other than to help you see which posts were made by me.
oh snap that was brilliant.
anyways a wii is about the cheapest rehab device ever. let's waste thousands arguing about it instead!
If we get find the government involved in buying video game consoles, the prices WILL go up. This will make a nice experiment. Let's make it so that insurance covers them. We'll have $1000 Wiis before you know it. It will then be called a failure of the "free market".
How do you figure that? The government buys lots of things, and generally in much greater bulk than they could conceivably buy Wii consoles in. Laptops, monitors, pens, paper, bullets, cars....the list goes on and on. Since we're not paying $10,000 for a Dell laptop, or $4 per round of 9mm ammunition due to government purchases, why do you think the Wii would be affected this way?
This also has nothing to do with the free market. Government purchases are just as much a part of the free market as any other purchase, so long as they don't legislate an arbitrary price and force the manufacturer to sell it at that price.
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.