portable benefits Archives - Workers' Compensation Watch

My article in Trial Magazine started out as a post on this blog

If you are a member of The American Association of Justice (AAJ) you can read my article “Portable Benefits and The Gig Economy” in this month’s edition of Trial Magazine. If you are a plaintiff’s lawyer and not an AAJ member, you can click here to join AAJ.

If you are a non-plaintiff’s lawyer reader of this blog you can click here or here for what amount to rough drafts of the Trial article. (Sorry the article is copyrighted to AAJ and only available to members)

Briefly, the main takeaway from my article is that while the fight over worker misclassification as it relates to the gig economy is an old fight, the move to develop a separate employee benefits scheme is a new issue. Of course, some more senior practitioners, namely Tom Domer, have pointed out privately that remedies like today’s “portable” benefits” proposals were proposed in the late 19t/early 20^th century when workers’ compensation laws were being proposed, debated and drafted.

I assume that I will be writing more about portable benefits in the future as events and time warrant. But for now, my next big blog project is going to be exploring how employment risk fits in within the so-called “grand bargain” of workers’ compensation. My thesis is that workers’ compensation developed in response to new risks from the newly industrializing economy of the late 19^th century. Farm and domestic workers were excluded from those laws as judges in the late 19^th century thought risks of those occupations where inherent. Putting aside legitimate concerns about how this excluded women and African-Americans from workers’ compensation, I think this exclusion is why employment risk is such a hotly contested issue as industrial jobs decline and service jobs increase.

This exclusion of workers from workers’ compensation, which is inherent in workers’ compensation, is one reason why I don’t like the term “grand bargain” in describing the origins of workers’ compensation. My dislike of the term grand bargain will probably be fleshed out over the next few months as well.

So thanks for continuing to read Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Watch. Thanks to all the attorneys, whether on the worker or management side, who take the time to write original content based on their experience in practice. I gain insight from what you write and I will continue to try to provide insight to lawyers and non-lawyers alike about workers’ compensation and employment law.

State Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln has helped lead the charge for Medicaid expansion in Nebraska.

Nebraska voters will likely vote on Medicaid expansion in November after Insure the Good Life turned in 135,000 signatures earlier this month. Insure the Good Life estimates 98,000 Nebraskans who aren’t eligible for Medicaid but can’t afford coverage on the ACA exchanges will would get insured if the measure passes in Novmeber.

If Medicaid expands in Nebraska, it could impact the employee-employer relationship and workers compensation in the state.

Workers Compensation

Expanded health insurance means that more people will have access to medical care and have a relationship with a general practitioner. Oftentimes injures employees don’t have family doctors, so they let their employers pick their doctor by default. Letting an employer pick a doctor in a workers’ compensation claim can be harmful to an injured employee’s workers compensation case.

Access to primary care can also help an injured worker manage chronic conditions such high blood pressure and diabetes that can hinder recovery from a work injury.

An employee who has their workers compensation claim denied and isn’t working is usually unable to afford COBRA coverage — assuming their employer offers health insurance in the foirst place. An injured worker in that situation who is covered by Medicaid can continue to get the medical care they need to recover and develop their workers compensation case.

Employee-Employer relations

Employees often put up with abusive employers solely for the sake of health insurance. The option of enrolling in Medicaid would give more employees to take their job and shove it. This concern is part of the allure of portable benefits for employee that I have written about before. Less reliance on employers for health insurance could improve labor mobility and push up wages.

My opinions about the impact of Medicaid expansion in Nebraska come with some caveats. I have long believed the expansion of health insurance leads to more doctor choice for injured workers. But some studies of the ACA show it has lead to consolidation in the medical industry. This consolidation could gut any formal right employees have to chose their own doctors under workers compensation laws because there is less overall choice of doctors. This issue may have to be addressed by more vigorous anti-trust law enforcement

Also, just because a state expands Medicaid by referendum doesn’t mean the elected branches of government will implement the expansion. That is what is happening in Maine. The whole structure of the Affordable Care Act could be altered through another court challenge to the ACA. Finally the Nebraska Medicaid petition has been challenged by opponents of the expansion

But even with those caveats, I believe Medicaid expansion would be a good thing for injured workers and employees in Nebraska.

Workers' Compensation Watch

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Category Archives: portable benefits

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Possible Medicaid expansion could impact workers’ compensation, labor markets

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