Florida Injury Victim Lawyer Blog

It's no surprise that insurance industry sees any effort by the federal government to set up a commission to study state workers' compensation laws and practices as unjustified and a waste of taxpayers' money, according to the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA). As an attorney who represents injured workers in Florida I see these type of efforts by the insurance lobby to suppress the rights of injured workers and other injury victims all the time.

H.R. 635, the "National Commission on State Workers' Compensation Laws Act of 2009." The bill would create a commission tasked with evaluating the state-based workers' compensation insurance system and making recommendations for improvements to the system. This type of national review of the states workers' compensation systems is long overdue. Over the past 30 years the rights of this nation's workers, who are the backbone of our economy, has given way to the more powerful insurance lobby and its billions of dollars in annual profits. The benefits that injured workers receive after they are injured on the job has been whittled down to almost nothing while at the same time the profits of the giant workers compensation insurance companies have skyrocketed.

PIA National Government Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Lee says that "Workers' compensation programs are regulated by the states, not the federal government. The federal government should not seek to interfere in a state-based and state-regulated system. This is a waste of time and taxpayers dollars." What Mr. Lee fails to state is the fact that the insurance lobby has been successful in obtaining laws in most states that favor insurance companies over injured workers and he does not want that to change since it will hurt the enormous profits of the insurance companies that his group represents.

Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) introduced H.R. 635 on January 22, 2009. It was referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor. Identical legislation failed to advance in the House during the 110th Congress.

Under the proposal, the commission would be composed of 14 members, 10 of whom would be political appointees. The commission would have the authority to hold hearings, issue subpoenas, take testimony, and receive evidence. It would be required to make recommendations for improvements to the workers compensation system within 18 months.

It comes as no surprise that PIA supports the current state-based system of insurance regulation and opposes legislation that would transfer supervisory authority to the federal government and also opposes the National Insurance Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 1880) by Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Melissa Bean (D-Ill.).

Hopefully this national effort on behalf of workers will succeed and the rights of workers injured on the job will begin to be restored.