NU Online News Service, July 20, 3:33 p.m.EDT

The National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) isopposing the proposed creation of a federal commission to examinestate workers' compensation laws, arguing that the recommendationsof a similar commission in the past led to a crisis in themarketplace.

NCOIL unanimously adopted a "Resolution Opposing the Creation ofa Federal Commission to Examine State Workers' Compensation Laws"at its Summer Meeting in Philadelphia on June 12. The resolutionstates that NCOIL "reiterates its support for the state-basedworkers' comp system and opposition to legislation that wouldbroaden the federal role in that system."

The resolution is in response to H.R. 635, introduced in Januaryby U.S. Rep. Joseph Baca, D-Calif. That bill, NCOIL said in itsresolution, "would authorize the establishment of a 14-membercommission to examine state laws to determine if they provide anadequate, prompt and equitable system of compensation and medicalcare for injury or death arising from, out of and in the course ofemployment."

The NCOIL resolution further states that a previous commissionin 1971, with members appointed by President Richard Nixon,examined the workers' comp system and made "broad recommendationsthe following year that included higher disability benefits,compulsory coverage, and unlimited medical care and rehabilitationbenefits."

However, NCOIL noted that the commission, while recommendingthese "significant cost drivers," did not recommend anycountervailing utilization controls. When states adopted thecommission's recommendations, NCOIL said, a financial crisis in theworkers' comp system resulted, and lasted from the late 1980s tothe early 1990s.

NCOIL also said it believes Congress would be expected toapprove any recommendations from the commission, "which wouldlikely seek to impose rigid, one-size-fits-all federal benefitdelivery rules that inherently will interfere with state benefitsystems, increase system costs nationwide, and frustrate efforts ofthe states to contain costs."

NCOIL's Workers' Compensation Insurance Committee Chair Rep.Susan Westrom, D-Ky., the sponsor of the resolution, said in astatement, "The current state-based workers' [comp system] isflexible and responsive. It reacts to state-specific conditions,reflecting each state's nature and cost of employment.Recommendations made by a federal commission would likely impose aone-size-fits-all system that would ignore individual state needs,interfere with state benefit systems, and increase, not controlcosts."