Washington Workers Compensation system is a mess. It is $360 million in the red and still digging. Christine Gregoire proposed some reasonable changes. Some got dropped, but the bill would still improve the situation greatly.
House Majority Leader Frank Chopp should let it go for a vote. It has already passed the Senate with about half the Demos voting for it.
The key changes that remain: - There is to be a state-managed network of doctors, so that the state can cull out the ones who run their practices as disability mills.
- There is to be a program subsidizing the wages for workers who go back to work on light duty, which will reduce permanent disability claims.
- And an option for certain workers to take their benefits in lump sums, which in the long run will save the state money.
Without changes it will dig deeper and deeper in debt. Opponents only offer a tax increase - a tax in every job. Such a tax discourages job creation. Fewer jobs! No, pass this bill.
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