Keep Workers' Comp Voluntary, Abbott Says

[TexasTowelie]

Texas is the only state that doesn’t require private employers to carry insurance for workplace injuries and fatalities, and Attorney General Greg Abbott signaled Tuesday that he wants to keep it that way if elected governor.

While some have called for reforms to the voluntary workers’ compensation law, Abbott said allowing private employers to decide what’s best for them has helped make Texas an economic powerhouse.

“There are several things that have led to Texas growing jobs more than any other state,” he said. “One was the reform that allowed employers to choose whether or not they were going to purchase workers’ compensation insurance.”

The campaign of Abbott’s Democratic opponent, state Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth, called workers’ compensation “essential” but remained noncommittal about whether it should ever be mandatory for certain sectors of the private economy.

Since the early 1900s, Texas has let employers decide what’s best for them. A Texas Tribune investigation published this week detailed what can happen to workers who sustain injuries on the job in Texas, the only state that doesn’t require private employers to carry the state-regulated insurance or a private alternative. In many cases the workers are left to fend for themselves or rely on charities and taxpayers to pay for their care.

More at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/01/keep-workers-comp-voluntary-abbott-says/ .

[TexasTowelie]

1. Later in the article:

Abbott, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, authored a 1998 decision, The Texas Mexican Railway Co. v. Lawrence P. Bouchet, that cleared the way for employers that don’t carry workers’ compensation to terminate injured workers without fearing a state retaliatory firing lawsuit. It’s still illegal for employers to discriminate against a worker for pursuing an injury claim inside the workers’ compensation system. But the Bouchet decision removed that prohibition for employers that opt out of it.

Petkanas said Davis would work with the Legislature to “restore the basic legal protections that Texans lost under the Bouchet ruling.”

[SheilaT]

2. In at least some states

companies that injure more workers pay higher workers' comp fees. It's seen as a way to keep companies form injuring too many. What a bizarre notion.