Workers’ Comp: Good Idea Gone Bad

About a century ago when workers’ compensation laws began to be enacted by the states, good intentions permeated the workplace. The goal was a no-fault insurance program that would promote workplace harmony by resolving disputes over injuries without litigation and resulting bad blood. What a difference a hundred years can make.

An in-depth series by the New York Times (click here, here and here) focusing primarily on the workers’ comp system in New York demonstrates the well-intended goal has been turned on its head by decades of workplace warfare. New York isn’t representative of all states, but I doubt that any state has achieved the original purpose of a workers’ comp system.

Employers’ suspicion of rampant employee fraud runs deep. Employees claim there is rampant employer pressure not to file workers’ comp claims. Doctors end up being hired guns for employers or employees. The system is madly slow, preventing workers from receiving the care and money they need and slowing the process of returning employees to work quickly enough to keep a business running smoothly. Lawyers become hardened to a system that’s bureaucratically dysfunctional.

Employer safety incentives are viewed cynically by employees as ways to mobilize peer pressure against workers who consider reporting an injury. Employers decry malingerers who exploit the system. Employees live in fear of being fired for reporting an injury, despite laws designed to prevent retaliation.

When we wonder how our economy could’ve gotten in the mess it’s in — when we marvel at how people take advantage of each other – when we don’t understand the skepticism about a well-intentioned attempt to reform health care via a government-sponsored program, consider our workers’ compensation system. It doesn’t have to be that way, some will argue. Others will contend there’s no way to prevent it.