Rousmaniere: The New Democratic House Likely to Confront Work Comp

Democratic control of the House of Representatives, secured by yesterday’s elections, appears likely to put the workers’ compensation system under the most intense Congressional scrutiny in decades. That will happen if Democrats follow through on their expressed concerns about workers’ comp.

When in the minority, ten Democrats showed their irritation in an Oct. 20, 2015, letter to the then Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez. 

The authors wrote that they were “concerned about a pattern of detrimental changes to state Workers’ Compensation laws and the resulting cost shift to public programs like Social Security disability…”

They cited a 2015 study by OSHA, noting “employers now cover only about 20% of the overall cost of a workplace injury with the workers themselves, their families, (with) their private health insurance covering nearly 63% of the cost and tax payer-supported safety net programs covering the remaining.”

They also challenged what they saw as a long trend towards reducing benefits to injured workers. They referred to: “The race to the bottom (by states) which appears to be nearly bottomless. “ 

That Department of Labor report, issued in March 2015, blasted the workers’ comp system, coming close to calling it a deadbeat. At about that time, ProPublica issued its first critique of the system, which reverberated through the workers’ comp industry.   

Minority members signing the letter came from senate committees on Health, Education, Welfare and Pension, Finance, and Budget Committees. Senate signers included Bernie Sanders. The House signers represented the minority members in Health, Education and Workforce, Budget, and Ways and Means.

House signers were:

·      Bobby Scott (Dem, VA), ranking (senior) Democrat on Education and Workforce Committee

·      Chris Van Hollen (Dem, MD), subsequently elected as Senator in 2016

·      Sander Levin (Dem, MI), ranking Democrat on Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Ways and Means

·      Frederika Wilson (Dem, FL), member of Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions of the Education and Workforce Committee

·      Xavier Becerra (Dem, CA), subsequently elected Attorney General of California in 2016

*Rousmaniere's bi-weekly column will run tomorrow. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Rousmaniere is widely known throughout the workers’ compensation industry, both for his writing and consulting experience. Based in the picture perfect New England town of Woodstock, VT, he is a regular on the conference circuit, and is deeply in tune with trends and developments within the industry. His passion is writing and presenting on issues largely related to immigration, and he maintains a blog on the subject at www.workingimmigrants.com.

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