The study misses the focus and humanization of what workers' compensation is all about. The concept of providing a remedial and expeditious remedy to injured workers seems to have been left outside in the company parking lot.
The California problems are not isolated, they are nationally systemic. The system fails to deliver and fails to encourage a safer worker environment. More of the same old thing, as RAND recommends, ie. more business should be covered, and more premiums should be collected, just isn't going to cut it any longer.
Workers' compensation is fine, as long as a worker doesn't get sick. Dormant and latent conditions for the most part remain untreated by the present system. Preventive medical care is non-existent. Medical monitoring is a major struggle to secure.
Occupational disease cases have perpetually lingered through delay and denial tactics, and now the condition needs critical care that a bandaid will not cure. As the NY Times reports in results of a recent poll, the safety net has failed.
Nationally the system needs to re-worked. Injured workers need to receive medical care through an effective and efficient process and not left out in the streets to suffer. Congress needs to act to provide coverage through an expansion of the proposed national health care agenda.
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