LD1913 - Workers' Compensation

(2012)

An Act To Review and Restructure the Workers’ Compensation System

Sponsored by Originally sponsored by: Rep. Andre Cushing (R – Hampden)

What is the bill?

Workers’ Compensation is a lifeline designed to help protect injured workers from losing everything. During the legislative session, scores of injured workers shared their personal stories about terrible injuries at work, the difficulty of navigating the current Workers’ Comp system and fighting with insurance companies. LD 1913 will make life even more difficult for severely injured workers. This legislation drastically reduces the duration of disability benefits available to severely injured workers. It caps benefits for almost all injured workers at ten years, even if their injury results in permanent earnings loss or prevents them from returning to work. The bottom line: Almost all injured workers most deserving of long-term wage replacement protection will lose it under this bill. This is particularly galling given that Workers Comp premiums have dropped 56% since 1993 and more than 7% in 2011 alone. LD 1913 followed a long, contentious path to enactment. Following the wishes of the insurance industry, the bill was amended dramatically for the worse in committee at the eleventh hour. The Senate ultimately made changes to slightly mitigate the damage, but this bill remains very harmful for seriously injured workers.

What happened?

Bill passed in amended form and signed by the Governor

Votes