Executive Summary Labor Department Workers Comp Report 2016

This is a follow up to the previous post.  Here is the full text of the reports Executive Statement.  It belongs here because it underscores the need for substantive change that will not come about from the same corporate interests that have created this problem to begin with.  ColoradoCare, Amendment 69 provides a solid framework upon which to build a patient responsive Colorado workers comp and health care system.  Vote Yes on Amendment 69.

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U.S. Labor Department Workers Comp Report 2016

https://www.propublica.org/documents/item/3121896-Labor-Department-Workers-Comp-Report-2016.html

DOES THE  WORKERS COMPENSATION SYSTEM FULFILL ITS OBLIGATIONS TO INJURED 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

State-based workers’ compensation programs provide critical support to workers who are injured or made sick by their jobs. These programs are a key component of the country’s social benefit structure and of occupational safety policy, and the only major component of the social safety net with no federal oversight or minimum national standards. This Report provides an introduction to these programs, but it also sounds an alarm: working people are at great risk of falling into poverty as a result of workplace injuries and the failure of state workers’ compensation systems to provide them with adequate benefits.

Despite the sizable cost of workers’ compensation, only a small portion of the overall costs of occupational injury and illness is borne by employers. Costs are instead shifted away from employers, often to workers, their families and communities. 

US Labor Department - Workers Comp "race to the bottom”

When workers comp insurance executives fly around Colorado proclaiming how well Colorado's Workers Comp functions, remember their number one concern is how well it functions in making profits for them.  Once we get past the pretty advertising brochures patients are merely revenue producing units.  These harsh words are justified by the ugly little secret that even the US Labor Department has had to acknowledge. Workers Comp programs are being straggled by insurance corporation more interested in profits that caring for people.

It's time for a new health care system, one that is responsive to patients, not to amoral corporate overlords.  ColoradoCare's Amendment 69 provides the framework to create such a health care system.  Vote Yes on Amendment 69!

{ hat tip to Dr. Tom Horiagon } 

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Labor Report Urges Study Of A Federal Role In State Workers' Comp Laws

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/05/496596865/labor-report-urges-study-of-a-federal-role-in-state-workers-comp-laws

HOWARD BERKES, NPR and MICHAEL GRABELL, PROPUBLICA

October 5, 2016

A "race to the bottom" in state workers' compensation laws has the Labor Department calling for "exploration" of federal oversight and federal minimum benefits.

"Working people are at great risk of falling into poverty," the agency says in a new report on changes in state workers' comp laws. …

The report was prompted by a letter last fall from 10 prominent Democratic lawmakers, who urged Labor Department action to protect injured workers in the wake of a ProPublica/NPR series on changes in workers' comp laws in 33 states.