Health care reform will change much of the medical services delivery system as we know it, but its impact on workers' compensation, while likely significant, will be indirect and accidental–as well as both positive and negative.

Worries that the feds will take over workers' comp are unfounded. Congress has plenty on its plate without thinking about an infinitesimal industry that represents less than 2 percent of U.S. medical spending.

In the context of all the politicking around energy policy, the financial services reform initiative, nuclear arms reduction treaties, the Middle East peace process, as well as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, workers' comp is not, and will never be, worthy of any attention on Capitol Hill.

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