Creating an independent, nonprofit company to provide workers' compensation to Illinois is a phenomenally bad idea, state Sen. Dale Righer (R-Mattoon) said regarding House Bill 2622.
“One bad claim and this system is wiped out, and then the guaranty fund is on the hook,” Righter said.
HB2622, presented to the Senate by Daniel Biss (R-Evanston), would set up and allow the Illinois Employers Mutual Insurance Company to enter the workers' compensation market to provide insurance to Illinois employers. The bill would provide a loan of up to $10 million to start the company. It is companion legislation to HB2525, a contentious bill aimed at regulating and monitoring workers' compensation rates.
Biss argued that nearly a dozen states have created similar entities, including Connecticut, which started with 10 times the amount of money proposed in HB2622.
But Illinois has yet to prove that it is competent enough to run such a company, Righter countered.
“The notion that you can file a bill and create an insurance company like this … it doesn’t work like that,” Righter said. “This government, which has so excelled at things like taking care of the poor, reducing poverty, balancing its budgets and providing a strong economy … we’ve been so good at (those things) that we are now going to run our own insurance company.”
Righter contended that Illinois needs good policies, not another company, to handle workers' compensation.
“The issue here isn’t whether or not we have a government-owned or a government-run insurance company. It’s whether or not we have policies in place that provide for the fair distribution of risk and economic growth, which we don’t have,” Righter said.
The solution to the workers' compensation crisis is reform, Righter concluded.
“The answer (to this crisis) isn’t to leap into the government saying, ‘Well, we’re going to do this,'" Righter said. "It’s to change the policies that are creating the problems in the first place...the bills. They are simply piling up. They’re not solving problems. They’re piling onto the severity of the problems. Please vote 'no.'”
HB2622 has passed both houses.
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