The State of Workers' Comp in the State
Submitted by Muffet on Tue, 11/24/2009 - 5:38pm.
News of the Day
Promoted from the forums. -- David
Nobody seems to care much about workers' compensation on political blogs. Nobody seems to respond to posts about how awful injured workers in Ohio are being treated. Well, I'll try one more time.
Rep Bill Seitz (R) (Cincinnati) has introduced a bill to refuse workers compensation coverage for anyone who is injured and cannot prove he/she is a legal resident. It matters not that the injury is severe. It matters not that the employer wanted cheap labor and hired someone who isn't documented so that the cost would be cheaper. It matters not that an employer in Ohio is required to report all payroll in Ohio, as premiums are based on payroll. It matters not that even if payroll has not been reported, the employer still gets to avail himself of the immunity workers' comp coverage provides, unless the employer actually knew the employee was illegal. Yep. They are going to admit that.
Workers' comp coverage is not provided through taxes. Employers report payroll, actuaries look at how dangerous the work is, the BWC assigns a premium, it goes into a big account, and the BWC invests the money so that claims can be paid. It's a trade-off. An injured worker cannot sue an employer for mere negligence in causing an injury, and the benefits to the injured worker are limited by statute.
I'll say it again. Injured workers in Ohio are being treated badly by an administration that is headed by a Democrat but run by a former employee of AEP and the insurance industry. (That administrator was appointed by said Democrat.)
Work Comp Reaction
Submitted by ytownboy3 on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 10:17pm.
ytownboy3 credits BSB for highlighting an issue that gets very little attention during the Strickland term. First, rest assured, the Seitz bill is going no where so long as we have a Dem controlled House and Governor. If we lose the apportionment board and the House, and if Kasich bests Strickland for Governor, Seitz' bill may in fact become a reality. (Given the stakes, is BSB sure it wants JBRU running for a slot in which she will have no control over the plight of injured workers? But I digress.) With so much of its ignorance or naivete now exposed, it is fairly evident the Strickland Administration had no agenda as it related to workers' comp. They were so unconcerned about it that they appointed an AEP flak who possessed no knowledge/understanding or appreciation of WC or even the history of recent developments. Apparently, they thought it was enough to appoint a person known to be a competent manager/administrator, even if her experience came from within the utility world. This nimwit was given no direction/no marching orders. Check for yourself, Team Strickland has a number of of mid level managers at numerous state agencies who receive no babysitting from the Strickland inner circle. This leads to these folks flexing their muscles in power struggles within their spheres of influence. They do so with no supervision whatsoever. It seems the Strickland management style has no provision for receiving input/feedback at a level higher than their agency chieftains from those that might be impacted by affected by agency action. This means that if a Director like the boob at BWC tells them "this is the way to go," Team Strickland lets them go full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, without regard for any political consequences. Let's look at BWC for an example. Recently the agency powered through an increase in the employer premiums that BSB pointed out that fund the system. Perhaps it was a great idea for the long term viability of the BWC surplus fund. Perhaps not. Ask yourself, however, whether it was a great idea to take this action as we head into an election year? Me thinketh not. Strickland has tried to sell himself to business as a pro business Democrat. This BWC action raising employer premium in these challenging times strikes this loyalist as stupid, stupid, stupid. Can we expect these same people to support Strickland when his girl is sticking it to them and their bottom line? Doubtful. Doubtful but typical of how the Strickland team arrives at decisions. They create a vacuum in which some power hungry person exerts power without regard for its impact on the 2010 race for Governor. Does this make any sense? If they get tossed fom office next year, who cares, she won't She has already earned a hefty retirement from her utility days. Wise up Governor Strickland and start leading. GO BUCKS!!
Workers' comp reaction
Submitted by Independent55 on Sat, 12/05/2009 - 3:46pm.
My main problem with Marsha Ryan at BWC is that she has left too many Republican appointees in middle management positions at the agency. They are the same persons who either participated in the infamous corruption of a few years ago or else kept silent when they saw it going on. Marc Dann had them shaking in their boots when he became Attorney General, but now that he's gone they have relaxed and are back to business as usual.
Having said that, one thing that Ryan deserves credit for is the very thing she is being raked over the coals for on the BS Blog. The fact is that she could deserve a chapter in an update of the book Profiles in Courage for her acts on that issue. She has been willing to stand up to extremely powerful special interests who have been making huge amounts of money off the absurdly high premium discounts that BWC has offered for years in its group rating program. The discounts made no actuarial sense and have been lambasted by about 11 different independent actuarial studies in the last 19 years.
The recommendations of those studies were repeatedly ignored by the Republicans, and the only reason was that they wanted to continue lining the pockets of their political supporters. Meanwhile, employers who would have a workers' comp claim filed against them and thus lose the discounts could see their premiums increase by 2,000% or more. BWC's own statistics show that those ridiculous increases caused thousands of Ohio businesses to close each year. (The only way many businesses could survive the increases was to get a political fix to illegally lower their premiums. The Republicans were happy to oblige for their friends. And the Republican inspector general looked the other way.)
Ryan correctly saw that what was going on was extremely unethical, outrageous, and harmful to Ohio's economy. So she acted to reduce the discounts and make the premium rates fairer and closer to being actuarily sound. Although the employers in groups are seeing modest increases in their rates as a result, most Ohio employers are not in groups and are seeing significant reductions in their premiums.
That's the message the current administration needs to get out. If Ryan were to cater to the special interests who got rich off the unfair system, and who are currently screaming about the changes, she would be no better than the unethical and heartless Republicans who were running the workers' comp system and Ohio's economy into the ground.
Here is a link