EDITORIAL SICK PAY COSTS OF CALIFORNIA'S WORKERS' COMP PROGRAM CRIPPLE BUSINESS, PUBLIC SERVICES.CALIFORNIA'S workers' compensation workers' compensation, payment by employers for some part of the cost of injuries, or in some cases of occupational diseases, received by employees in the course of their work. can be described as the worst of all possible worlds: We have the highest premiums and some of the lowest benefits. It's a system rife with fraud and abuse, one that rewards lawyers, bureaucrats and unscrupulous medical personnel, while driving businesses and local governments into poverty. And it doesn't even do a good job of helping genuinely injured workers. Put the state Legislature's inability to reform this long-busted system alongside energy deregulation Deregulation The reduction or elimination of government power in a particular industry, usually enacted to create more competition within the industry. Notes: Traditional areas that have been deregulated are the telephone and airline industries. and the budget crisis in the museum of all-time great government failures. Employers in California pay workers' compensation insurance premiums that are, on average, 221 percent higher than in Arizona and 154 percent higher than in Oregon. Premiums climbed by an astonishing a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. 20 percent to 40 percent for many in the past year. That helps to explain why so many businesses are looking to leave California, while others never come here. It also helps to explain why local governments at all levels are speeding toward bankruptcy. Governments in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County spend more than $1 billion a year on workers' compensation costs, almost twice what they were spending in 1996-97. Claims against Los Angeles, including workers' comp, have shot up 109 percent over the past decade. At the Los Angeles Police Department "LAPD" and "L.A.P.D." redirect here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).  This article or section is written like an . , as much as 10 percent of the perpetually depleted de·plete tr.v. de·plet·ed, de·plet·ing, de·pletes To decrease the fullness of; use up or empty out. [Latin d force is out of commission, drawing paychecks without working. Clearly not all those collecting benefits should be, and regulators lack either the power or the inclination to aggressively tackle fraud. Timothy Buresh, chief operating officer Chief Operating Officer (COO) The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. for the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. , estimates that fraud and abuse in workers' comp cost thecounty ``in excess of 1,000 teachers, plus their classrooms; 1,000 police and sheriff's deputies; 1,000 firemen, their trucks and apparatus; and 125 new bus routes this year alone.'' Mayor James Hahn and Rusty Hammer, president of the Los Angeles Area Chambers of Commerce, have called for city and county leaders throughout the state to push the Legislature to deal with the workers' comp crisis. We wish them luck. Maybe our legislators will take the public's concerns about workers' comp more seriously if they come from other elected officials. We can only hope so. Until we deal with this worsening crisis, California will continue to spiral downward out of control - with fewer jobs and worse public services. |
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