Illinois, Oklahoma, Washington, California, Montana, et al are lining up for Workers’ Comp Reform in this economy. Blame the injured worker because the costs are increasing and cut their recovery. The theory is to reduce costs by reducing benefits.
This short sighted remedy ignores the real problem: reducing claims. Every worker who was ever injured will say they would rather that the injury not occurred than go out injured. The way to reduce claims is to increase employee safety training, criminalize penalties so that employers with repeat serious violations go to jail, and ramp up enforcement, investigaton, and fines for safety violations.
Workers are injured because of unsafe work conditions either created or ignored by their employers. Employer violations of safety rules increase during economic downturns because safety is the first thing to go. The way to decrease benefits is to decrease claims. Decrease claims by enforcement of safety rules.
The current rush to reform by decreasing benefits is akin to penalizing the victim of a crime. California’s ‘reform’ was a prime example. The reform did not decrease claims, it only increased the profits of the insurance companies. The injured worker becomes the scapegoat.