This past week has been hectic on the news front. Internationally, the financial riots in Greece, and the British election results have sounded an alarm that the Euro is going south. The impact on the world’s financial markets on Thursday reverberated across the globe. On the home front, Saturday night last, a car bomb was parked in Times Square as news media merely focused instead for 3 desperate hours on Presidential humor at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Even the US workers’ compensation system generated gloomy news as the NCCI reported dismal findings and a lack of a positive direction for the patchwork of State systems. NY State has joined the ranks of closing down 20% of its workers’ compensation agency. Unemployment rates in the US continue to grow and the rebound of the past is unlikely and the nation’s workers’ compensation continues to struggle.
One should not loose sight of the fact that the US workers' compensation system had its birth in Europe at the turn of the 1900’s. It was imported into the United States and the program flourished in tandem for decades with the late industrial revolution.
The international economic system now is challenged. The unemployment rate fails to rebound. Thomas L. Friedman (NY Times) brings into question, how to adapt the workers' compensation system to fit in the world market. He points out that, under Greek law workers in “hazardous jobs” can retire on full pension at age 50 for women and 55 for men. In Britain everyone over the age of 60 can ride the bus for free.
Everyone knows that a “free ride” just doesn’t exist any longer. Some commentators place doubt even on the $1 Trillion European bailout package as merely “kicking the can down the road,” and not a definitive solution.
The pension and benefit program in Europe is just one element of the failed workers’ compensation system. A larger question will be the adaptation of a medical benefit delivery system that works efficiently and is sustainable. As Friedman points out, "The Tooth Fairy is Dead." New concepts and ideas are desperately needed. Those looking to the past for solutions, now need to look to the future and be prepared to adapt to the future. It is necessary to grasp a vision of the horizon and beyond. The change going forward may be an entirely different approach to a present troubled workers’ compensation system.
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Jon L. Gelman Wayne NJ author of NJ Workers' Compensation Law and contributory author Modern Workers' Compensation Law.
