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Never bet against the Speaker

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Illinois

* As you know by now, the workers’ compensation reform bill passed the House on the second try…

House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, could be seen walking the floor talking to his members before taking the speaker’s podium to moderate the debate.

During the debate, Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago, sat behind the speaker’s podium and had a brief exchange with Madigan.

Dunkin had voted “present” the first time the measure was addressed, but supported the plan Tuesday.
When asked if the speaker addressed his concerns, Dunkin said “Yeah, he did,” but declined to provide specifics.

The bill went from 55 votes on Sunday to 62 yesterday. Despite strong bipartisan support in the Senate, state Rep. Chris Nybo was the only House Republican to vote for the bill yesterday. His statement…

As the sole House Republican voting for this measure, it was an extraordinarily difficult vote to cast. I share the deep disappointment of my colleagues that we were not included in the negotiations of this bill and that medical providers are being singled out exclusively to reduce workers’ compensation costs. This bill does not achieve comprehensive workers’ compensation reform, but there is no doubt that Illinois businesses will realize millions of dollars in annual savings on workers’ compensation costs and that some of our largest employers in the state, including United, McDonalds, Walmart, Ford, Navistar and Dominicks strongly supported this bill. With workers’ compensation costs identified as the biggest impediment by our business community, this bill will improve our business climate, save jobs and create employment opportunities. That’s why I supported it.

* More on the bill…

“I’m very pleased that the General Assembly passed this historic reform. It’s now incumbent on all of us to work to implement these changes and improve the business climate of this state,” said Greg Baise, president of the Illinois Manufacturers Association, which pushed for the bill.

The cornerstone of the legislation, a 30-percent reduction in fees that businesses must pay to doctors, would save companies between $500 million and $700 million.

The measure sponsored by Rep. John Bradley (D-Marion) also establishes a medical network for workers compensation claims, cuts the period during which someone can draw payments for carpal tunnel syndrome from 40 weeks to 28 weeks and switches the burden of proof from employers to workers in proving whether alcohol or drugs contributed to workplace accidents.

* The opposition…

Republicans argued that the cost savings don’t add up, and again argued that most of the savings come from cutting medical fees for doctors and hospitals. They urged Democrats to re-negotiate the bill with lower cuts, a move pushed by the Illinois Medical Society.

“I think there are ways that there would be a lot of people willing to support this bill,” said Rep. Roger Eddy, R-Hutsonville. “The problem remains that perhaps your idea and my idea of shared sacrifice are different.”

Opponents said there needs to be a higher standard of proof that an injury happened on the job and contended the issue of doctor shopping goes unaddressed because of loopholes in the proposal when it comes to requiring injured workers to see a network of doctors.

“The people on this side of the aisle support workers compensation reform,” said House GOP Leader Tom Cross of Oswego. “But this is not reform. It doesn’t look like reform, it doesn’t smell like reform, it isn’t reform. And that’s a shame because we had an opportunity to do something very real today.”

More…

Rep. Dwight Kay, R-Glen Carbon, said experts question the savings claim. He said the measure wasn’t real reform.

“We have simply said we’re going to cobble together some numbers, we’re going to cobble together some expectations…” Kay said. “And we’ve called it reform.”

Opponents argued that more needed to be done to prevent fraudulent claims, and that there needed to be a higher standard of proof that injuries are job-related.

Thoughts?

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 9:23 am

Comments

This will probably buy a couple years of savings before it becomes apparent that the fee schedule wasn’t the only component that needed reform.

Comment by TD Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 9:29 am
Either Cross and his caucus, except Nybo, is right that it isn’t reform, or the IMA, IRMA and the majority of Senate Republicans are right that it is significant reform. They can’t both be right.

Comment by reformer Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 9:31 am
I don’t buy this “doesn’t go far enough” bull. Politicians know (or should know) that real change is incremental.

This was a good step forward, and they should all quit whining (or rationalizing or equivocating) and start working on the next step–like making recipients prove an injury was really work-related.

Comment by Ray del Camino Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 9:34 am
Given the nature of this beast, I can’t believe the business community could expect more from a Dem controlled process. Rep. Kay is right, this is not true complete reform. But it is far better than the status quo.

Comment by Bitterman Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 9:36 am
Brave move by Rep. Nybo. His statement is right on target: this is definitely not going to solve the problems, but moves in the right direction. I think the Republican leadership missed the boat here (again) with the notion that it is better to do nothing than make an incremental improvement.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 9:41 am
Any change should be better than what we have. I’m encourged large companies like Ford endores it
we might only be 3rd worst state to do business in. I doubt it’s real reform.

Comment by mokenavince Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 9:47 am
The R’s are correct that this is not reform, reform would include causation. Until the threshold is raised by 1% abuse is going to prevalent.

However, this does reduce workers comp costs by about 17 - 23%. Even after reducing the medical fee schedule by 30%, we still have the 2nd highest fee schedule in the country (don’t feel too bad for the doctors). Are the Republican’s still going to court business votes by rejecting workers comp savings, rejecting a bill to pay businesses for their past due services and not doing anything but holding press conferences for reducing spending.

The Republican’s better get their act together or the 2012 election is going to be a slaughter at the polls, especially with the new ridiculously democratic map.

Comment by Ahoy Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 9:52 am
“This will probably buy a couple years of savings before it becomes apparent that the fee schedule wasn’t the only component that needed reform.”–truer words have not been spoken. It’s not the fee schedule.

Comment by in the field Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 10:02 am
This GA put forth several pieces of “reform” legislation that barely scratch the surface of what is needed. Education reform, pension reform, workers comp reform were all similar in that they addressed the edges of the issues without addressing the core need for change. What they all have in common, is that real reform will require people to change what they do in a significant way and will cost large, politically powerful groups of people financially.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 10:13 am
This isn’t about whether it was “true reform” or not. It’s about what was politically possible. The smart guys (IMA & IRMA) understood that.

Those who were forced to vote against it (or present), will have that shoved down their throats come election time.

Comment by Middle of the Road Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 10:15 am
So, if the 30 percent cut was so bad, why did the House Republicans file the same reduction in their comprehensive WC amendment?

If the savings aren’t there, why did the docs fight it so vociferously?

Doug Whitney just cut the House GOP off at the knees with his statement. A bad vote twice and now the head of the Chamber says it was a good bill.

Comment by 4 percent Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 10:20 am
=== we might only be 3rd worst state to do business in ===

strangely, boeing has been telling its suppliers what a great state illinois is in which to do business. perhaps you can elaborate on why boeing is wrong?

Comment by bored now Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 10:22 am
What a wild few months it’s been since the election. When was the last time so much heavy lifting was done is such a short time?

Yes, Illinois is a terrible place to do business. That’s why the Chicago metro is the fourth largest metro economy on Earth, and why Illinois is the fifth largest economy among the 50 states. Just terrible.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 10:49 am
@anonymous. SB 1066 didn’t contain any PPO language or have causation language.

Comment by 4 percent Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 11:50 am
I’d like to see the S-GOP roll call. What’s the final bill number?

Comment by Raoule Duke Wednesday, Jun 1, 11 @ 2:38 pm