A mother’s brave tale about her battle with the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has led to dozens of people contacting 1 NEWS with similar stories.
Last night, 1 NEWS revealed a mother of three's struggle to get ACC help after her cancer treatment went horribly wrong.
Now Kelly Laursen's story of her battle with ACC has led to more people sharing theirs.
For six years, Kelly has been trying to get compensation for injuries she believes were caused by a mistake during routine surgery.
“They want you to give up, they want you to lose hope,” she says.
Read more: ACC revokes cover for woman who was surgically injured
Many say the system is broken.
"We have nine of our community law centres dealing with ACC issues, and look it goes from the sublime to the ridiculous," says Sue Moroney, Community Law Chief Executive.
"I understand the frustrations people have but ACC job is to apply the law and I think in the vast majority of cases they do do that well," says ACC Minister, Iain Lees-Galloway.
Among the complaints: That people aren't treated like humans, they're forced to jump through expensive hoops and aren't given reasons for eventually being rejected.
But the minister disagrees.
"I think ACC is working very hard to create a system where people are supported," says Mr Lees-Galloway.
Of the two million ACC claims last year there were 4500 complaints.
Most of the recommendations made in a 2015 review of ACC have now been implemented.
But the minister says he's waiting for the outcome of a review into the entire health system before deciding if any further changes are needed.
Other criticisms are that ACC is not compassionate and doesn't meet the government's aim of putting wellbeing first.
“ACC absolutely needs to lift its game when it comes to well being, they are behaving as if they are any other private insurer, assessing risk, sometimes coming up with ridiculous excuses about why they are declining people's claims,” says Ms Moroney.
Mr Lees-Galloway says of course it's ACC's job to be compassionate "but first they need to apply the law."
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