Over the past several years, we have used this page to chronicle the successes and failures of California’s workers’ comp system since the historic enactment of SB 899 in 2004. Some of the themes have been constant – such as increasing inadequate permanent disability benefits and providing meaningful reemployment opportunities for injured workers. Some themes have been timely, including weighing in on the budget debate and calling for greater transparency in the operations of the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) and the Department of Industrial Relations, Office of Self-Insurance Plans. On April 19, 2009, it will be five years to the day since Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 899, and most, if not all, the issues commented on here will remain unresolved.
Many of you have commented for the publisher of Workers’ Comp Executive expressing various degrees of approval or outrage over the content of “Point of Order.” We read and appreciate each of them. Some have expressed disdain for any critical commentary written anonymously – apparently missing the point of our mythical author and forgetting that centuries ago a similar device was used by three individuals—Hamilton, Jay, and Madison—to convince the people of the United States to support the Constitution. Regrettably, for some, it is easier to kill the messenger than to understand the message.
So as we begin a new year, Workers’ Comp Executive renews its call for new thoughts, and new pens, to fill this page. A style guide has been prepared and shortly will be made available online. The point of these commentaries – public service — is to provoke debate over real issues, not to provide a forum for those who view workers’ comp reform as a business opportunity and who try to bend and morph public policy into a new profit center. This is an editorial page – not an infomercial. We would especially like to hear from key stakeholders – business and labor – whose points of view are too often reduced to soundbites in the media.
In two years, there will be a new governor in Sacramento. The clock is winding down on the Schwarzenegger administration. The budget will consume much of the energy in Sacramento – fundraisers likely will consume the rest – making 2009 a year of appropriately low expectations. By 2010, deals that could have been made won’t be made out of fear of giving up too much or asking too little. The fleeting nature of leverage may well prove that the game played in the Building results only in perpetuating the game, and though that may do well to line the pockets of vendors, entrepreneurs, and lobbyists, it does little, if anything, to aid employers or injured workers.
If you are concerned at all about this, then take a few moments to express yourself. The page is blank and there is no better time than now to fill it. Click here for our Publius style guide, and remember, this is not an infomercial.