Posted on 04/09/2004 10:43:48 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Statements by some trial lawyers that they are all but ready to oppose emerging measures to overhaul the state's dreadful workers' compensation insurance system seem to show intent to derail this critically important legislation -- even before a bill has been drafted. Obstinacy harms almost everyone when dealing with complex, contentious legislation like workers' compensation reform.
The system as it exists is indefensible. Period. It must be changed. Now.
At this critical juncture, no interested party -- trial lawyers, treatment providers and their professional associations, unions, non-represented workers, business groups, insurance companies -- should be taking absolutist positions. With that in mind, key elected officials in Sacramento have reached several compromises over the prototype legislation once carried by Sen. Chuck Poochigian, R-Frenso.
With that understanding, broad and very tentative agreements on key reforms have been reached by the governor and legislative leaders, and legislative staffers are taking advantage of their boss's Easter recess to draft a new bill.
In any omnibus legislation -- some experts predict the bill could reach 1,000 pages -- there is something for everyone to like and to dislike. And as lawyers know perhaps better than any other professionals, a good compromise is often one with which the parties are both vaguely unhappy and partly satisfied with the outcome.
Everyone has a stake in moderation on this issue. The present system stifles job creation and business retention in the state due to outrageous costs; workers who are injured are ill-served; other workers are penalized because business cannot afford to hire as many of them or pay them as well as they might otherwise; the few insurance companies that still write compensation policies cannot be competitive because they cannot predict costs and calculate premiums.
The broad approach for reforming the insurance all employers are mandated to carry is to use the most common and successful provisions that work in other states where premiums are lower and treatments are better.
Among the proposals are to use common managed care techniques in many cases, including preferred providers; generic medicines where appropriate; and standard occupational health evaluation and treatment protocols rather than open-ended individual judgments.
In addition, the bill could provide incentives to both employers and employees to be flexible in assigning post-injury work duties in order to return people to work rather than keep them on the dole.
The two key issues that are most in play are rate regulation and how to evaluate permanent disability, especially in cases where an earlier injury or pre-existing medical condition might be a contributing factor.
But as Assembly Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield has said, "We haven't seen any language yet. You can't do anything until you see the language."
And devils always lurk in that language. To stake out a position now seems to say more about self-interest than public interest.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.