Connecticut & Business Industry Lies About Workers' Compensation Insurance

I have a unique perspective on the pending workers' compensation debate. I am a member of the CBIA, an employer and as a lawyer I practice workers' compensation insurance.

In case you have not realized it, the CBIA is guilty of being a perpetual fibber (that's mild) when it come to justifying its position on matters before the legislature. Not that it fibs about what it wants but rather it spins out of whole cloth the supposed objective basis that support its positions. This has been true anytime it has lobbied for anything to do with the civil justice sytem and the workers' compensation system. It has in the past refused to provide me, as a member of the CBIA, with the objective documentation for its position or even copies of its committee and board minutes that have embraced its positions.

I urge your support on SB 25 (the elimination of the social security setoff) and SB 217 (permitting Commissioner's to extend discretionary benfits when justified). Voting No on SB 25 is unfair to senior citizens. It makes no sense that a person can work , earn entitlement to social security, earn entitlement to workers' compensation with its insufficient and paltry benefits and then effectively loose the benefit of his/her federal entitlement to social security benefits because it acts as a setoff for workers' comp benefits. I would hope that we live in a society that is more compassionate to its seniors. There is no fiscal or actuarial analysis that could possibly predict this change in the law would cost employers $8 million. There aren't enough cases in the system. At worst, the cost would be about $.50 per worker per week.

Further, it is embarrassing that we cap injured workers' benefits in this fashion. It is arbitrary and unreasonable. The legislature has deemed that the WC commissioners are sufficiently capable to mete out justice to workers and employers alike. I think that the Commissioners can be entrusted with the responsibility of not giving money away arbitrarily. After all, they are already entrusted with great financial responsibility.

In conclusion, I hope that you demand much more form the CBIA than the misguided baloney that you are continually fed. Why you might ask am I a member of the CBIA? The answer has to do with CBIA's competitve medical insurance that I provide to all of my employees and the fact that CBIA cannot exclude me as a member and I get to see many of its disingenuous claims like urging its members to write to you on a form that is already prepared with a vote no and its bogus justifications.