While we are usually overwhelmed by the barrage of incoming notices, demands, warnings, etc., this short Seattle Times editorial is on a topic important to everyone who wants to be sure injured workers are not kicked to the curb and, more generally, that Washington should be a place where the average working person is not treated as a second class citizen.
While real people face daily challenges that leave them exhausted and in bed by 9 p.m., corporations and insurance companies never sleep. They have lobbyists on the payroll 24/7 and are always pushing new laws that would essentially gut injured worker support programs.
The new law on the table right now would eliminate support that is based on an individual worker's medical needs by offering financially desperate workers a ‘cash buy out’ of all future benefits, no matter how long the injuries actually last. It reminds me of the cartoons where an insurance company adjuster is having an injured person sign a release of all claims while he’s still hanging upside down in his crushed vehicle.
This Seattle Times editorial nicely summarizes the proposed “improvement” in the injured worker support program.
