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| For Immediate Release April 23, 2003 |
Sacramento, CA- - The Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee offered only “token” support for workers’ compensation reform today after hearing testimony from small business owners and business community representatives and failing to pass most of the 14 reform bills - including a benefits increase suspension.
“Shock is the only way to describe what will hit employers and their employees today after they hear the news that the workers’ compensation reform is moving so slowly in the Capitol,” said CMTA president Jack M. Stewart after the hearing. “Failure to pass significant workers’ compensation reform is another large hit on the business community’s ability to operate competitively in California. Our extremely high operating costs are forcing businesses to make difficult choices and those choices didn’t get any easier today.”
Many small employers testified on the failed system and their company’s rising insurance premiums. For instance, Dave Dial, who owns Procure Home Health Services, testified that despite only one $250 claim since opening, his premiums still increased by 53 percent over the last year, a cost increase he can’t absorb without eliminating other heath benefits or safety programs. Paul Atlas who owns a small business in Tulare county also testified that his insurance premium went from $75,000 last year to $600,000 this year.
In the past ten years, the cost of California’s workers’ compensation system has nearly tripled, injury rates have been cut in half, and benefits to injured workers have increased by only 22%.
“Thousands of California workers have now lost their jobs or their health benefits as billions of dollars are squandered on a bloated and inefficient workers’ compensation system. In our view system costs must be reduce by $5 to $6 billion and provide real cost reductions to all California employers,” concluded Stewart.
Despite the committee’s unwillingness to pass comprehensive reform today, CMTA will continue to propose and advocate for workers’ compensation solutions in this legislative session.
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