House Vote Defeats Effort to Reform Illinois' Workers' Compensation System

Workers compensation reform was one of the major pieces of legislation being considered in the spring session of the legislature. The bill was sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Kwame Raoul, who has had some of the major pieces of legislation handed to him this spring, including pension reform, and the Bill to abolish the death penalty in Illinois. Sen. Raoul was successful in passing all three major pieces of legislation out of the Senate.

But Sunday night, May 29, workers compensation reform died In the House on a vote of 55 yes 39 no, and 19 voting present. The House sponsor, Representative John Bradley of Marion,said just prior to the House vote that if the vote failed -- he would not seek "postponed reconsideration", which allows a bills sponsor to bring the vote back to the floor at a later time. Bradley, nearly screaming to his fellow House members, said "THIS IS THE VOTE!"

As Bradley noted, Illinois workers compensation system is the most expensive in the country, with the exception of Alaska. The workers compensation program is a so-called "No Fault" insurance system designed to cover workers who are injured on the job. But many businesses in Illinois have long claimed this system is rigged, and that many workers claim payments for injuries that occurred off the job. There have also been complaints that the Arbitrators-- who decide the outcome of challenges to Workers' Compensation cases -- are biased in favor of the workers.

So the bill sponsored by representative Bradley in the House, and Sen. Raoul in the Senate, would have reduced he fees paid for workers compensation claims by 30%. As John Bradley noted, the fees would have to be reduced by 50% in order for Illinois to become the third most expensive state under workman's comp. Bradley also noted that under the proposed cuts the level of compensation would still be 150% higher than the payments made to doctors under Medicare.

There were other changes in the bill: arbitrators would have to be lawyers and be trained to handle the cases. They would have three-year terms. And they would be moved around to avoid so-called "cozy relationships"

"Causation" was the key bugaboo. This goes to the claim by businesses that many workers comp claims were for injuries that actually occurred off the job. This was not directly addressed. Although supporters of the proposed reform claim that the improvements in the training of arbitrators would have addressed this problem to some extent.

For sure the reforms were not perfect. And as a result, the political divides were not clear-cut. Republicans both supported and opposed the bill. A number of Republicans said the reductions in the medical fee schedules were not enough. They also did not like that causation was not directly addressed. They noted that Caterpillar Inc. was neutral on the Bill because they felt it did not reform the system enough.

And yet, quite a number of Republicans joined with the Democratic sponsors to say that this Bill-while not perfect-was a major improvement. As Rep. Michael Zalewski(R) said on the House floor debate, "do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

And yet in the end, that is apparently exactly what happened. 19 House members voted not to vote, by Voting Present. And so the workers compensation Bill, one of the more significant pieces of legislation to come before the Illinois legislature this spring session, went down to defeat in the House by five votes.

Now what remains at question, is whether a Bill to get rid of the entire Workman's Compensation system will pass. That bill has already passed the House and is now in the Senate which returns on Monday morning at 11 AM. As noted above, the workers compensation system is designed to be a "no-fault insurance system." Should the legislature vote to abolish the workers compensation system, then the courts will become very busy places as every challenged case will have to be litigated before compensation is paid.