Workers' Compensation: Benefits, Coverage, and Costs, 2008

The lack of correspondence between work‐related disability and receipt of workers' compensation benefits

“…Over the last two decades, workers' compensation benefits (cash benefits paid to workers plus the amounts paid to healthcare providers) per $100 of payroll have declined from a peak of $1.65 in 1990 to $1.03 in 2009 [Sengupta et al, 2011: Fig. 1].…”

Benefits and Earnings Losses for Permanently Disabled Workers in California: Trends Through the Great Recession and Effects of Recent Reforms

“…Note that the costs of the system refer to both the actual cost of the benefits as well as the cost of administering and delivering them. The administrative costs of workers' compensation benefits in state systems have generally been considered quite high (Berkowitz and Burton, Jr., 1987;Sengupta, Baldwin, and Reno, 2014). 3 There is an inherent and direct conflict between making a system more adequate and making it more affordable.…”

Reforming insurance to support workers' rights to compensation

“…Through the 1960s, only seven states provided insurance exclusively through a state fund, without participation from private insurance carriers [Thomason et al, 2001]; that number declined to four by 2008 [Sengupta et al, 2010]. From 1933From to 1984 to 12 states relied on a dual system where employers obtained insurance coverage either from private insurance carriers or from a state fund [Thomason et al, 2001].…”

“…From 1933From to 1984 to 12 states relied on a dual system where employers obtained insurance coverage either from private insurance carriers or from a state fund [Thomason et al, 2001]. Beginning in the mid-1980s, however, more states adopted a public or quasi-public insurance fund, leading to a total of 21 states now relying on this combination of public and private insurance sources [Sengupta et al, 2010].…”

“…Private insurance continues to be the largest benefit payment source, accounting for 53.2% of benefits in 2008 [Sengupta et al, 2010]. Almost all states also permit large employers to self-insure (subject to solvency requirements), and some states have extended this option by allowing some employer groups to self-insure.…”