Workers' comp update: costs, reform and Garamendi. (workers' compensation)(Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi) (Special Report: Insurance) (Industry Overview)

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Workers' comp update: costs, reform and Garamendi. (workers' compensation)(Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi) (Special Report: Insurance) (Industry Overview)

State maximum total-disability benefit ranks 30th nationwide

It was a bright idea from of California's Progressive era: Protect injured workers from loss of income by setting up a no-fault insurance program. If a worker suffered an injury on the job -- regardless of how it happened -- he or she received necessary medical care and, if disabled, a percentage of wages.

But the dream of 1913 is the nightmare of the 1990s.

For most of this century, the workers' compensation system worked. But in the past decade, things went haywire. Costs soared faster than inflation, as a blizzard of paperwork hit insurers. Workers' comp mills...

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