[John Jorsett]

Can't help but notice there's no mention of illegal aliens whatsoever as a contributing factor, of which soaring medical costs are directly related. Someone has to pay for the freeloading.

I'll go along with blaming illegals for a lot of the problems we face, but I'm not sure they're responsible for this particular one. They tend to work off the books, and thus not participate in the worker's comp system. If you read far down into the article, you'll see some people complaining about being underbid on jobs, and suspecting the competition of not paying the WC premiums. That's where the illegals would come in, but I don't think they're much to blame for the huge increase in premiums. For that, I'd say the fraud (lots), legal manuvering, and waste is more to blame.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Where I blame the illegals is in soaring medical costs, that was one reason given for workers' comp carriers going into insolvency. Hospitals left holding the bag from freeloading illegals are passing those expenses onto everybody else. Insurance companies as a result are forced to raise their premiums.

It's the government that has to fix that problem through legislation, but I'm not sure they're willing to do it.

[FITZ]

This is in today's paper here -- a Mexican farmworker is getting 26 million dollars for a workplace injury -- Farmers Insurance is ordered to pay it. $26 million must be loss of earnings?

http://www.diario.com.mx/nota.asp?notaid=46206

Los Angeles— Un campesino de origen mexicano será recompensado por una compañía de seguros con cerca de 26 millones de dólares luego de sufrir un accidente mientras trabajaba en los campos de Visalia, California.