Over the past several years we have closely watched the legislative process concerning Workers Compensation. Of course there is always mention of fraud and exorbitant attorney fees. Of course the fraud is always committed by someone other than the insurance carrier. Of course the answer to the problem is capping claimant attorney fees and further restricting the rights of injured workers. And of course there are no restrictions placed on defense attorney fees while the insurance carriers trample on the rights of those who can't afford to defend themselves and just plain ignore the lawful orders of our Workers Compensation judges.

The concerns are about keeping businesses in the state. Concerns about keeping insurance carriers in this state. And of course there are concerns about reasonable premiums and availability of comp coverage, especially for small businesses.

Where are the concerns about the humanity, justice, and well being of those injured and that of their families? Who is asking who will be willing to work in California in the future? Who is asking what is the human cost of the Workers Compensation system?

Every day millions of people innocently go to work and do the jobs they were hired to do. They will be most fortunate if they never have a serious work injury. They have control over their futures and the futures of their families. They have control over how many jobs they will work, where, and when. They have control over their financial destiny. They decide when they will retire or when they will not. They have years to plan their retirement funds. They have options for health insurance, life insurance, and disability insurance. They get to choose their own doctors and be an active participant in their health care.

Where are the options for those less fortunate? Where are the options for injured workers? What ever happened to the exchange made in the exclusive remedy for Workers Compensation victims? A change I might add that was never voted upon by the working people of California. A change that was forced on us by our elected officials. A change that was intended to do good things, but as always, politics and influence peddling have corrupted the noblest of intentions.

At first I really thought it was a lack of education on the part of our elected officials to allow something who's intent was meant to be so good to go so wrong. To some degree it is a lack of understanding on our lawmakers part. However it is the job of those elected to office to educate themselves on issues most important to the people they represent. That means all the people. Not just those with money for campaign contributions.

How hard is it to really fix the workers compensation system of California? I think a better question is who really wants to fix the Workers Compensation system of California and at what human cost? The fixes to the comp system are simple. Instead of fixing the comp crisis once and for all, our elected officials put Band-Aids on the problems, like moving around deck chairs on a sinking ship. They know their solutions are wrong. They even have trouble convincing themselves that their solutions are the right thing. They know they are responding to the pressures of their party and special interest groups while selling out the average citizen. Most politicians really want to do the right thing I believe, but they are stuck in election campaigns that are expensive and are most often funded by money from special interest groups. Believe me, for every dollar special interests give to politicians, special interests collect tenfold!

They know that they have done nothing to stop the crisis. They know that comp will be back in the legislature each and every year. They know that premiums will continue to climb while benefits decrease and the rights of those affected decline. They continually pass the buck hoping that they won't have to really address the issue during their term in office. Let the problem fall to the next guy. It is an unpopular subject to deal with after all.

So while all of this is going on, what is the human cost? Who suffers in the meantime? Is it just the injured worker? Of course not. It all starts out with a person going to work just like any other day. Then something tragic happens and the person is unfortunate and sustains a serious injury as opposed to one that only needs little medical treatment. In many of these cases the injuries are due to the negligence of their employers or a lack of workplace safety programs, but then it's a no fault system, right?

Thus the nightmare begins. The injured employee is sent to a comp dcotor in the employer's medical provider network who assures him or her that everything is okay. Believing that doctors know what they are talking about, and not knowing the hold the insurance carriers have over the comp system, the injured worker innocently believes the doctor. He or she returns to work or rests at home believing he or she has only sustained a minor injury.

But then weeks go on and the pain is still there. His or her family becomes frustrated because there is nothing they can do to help him or her. The carrier starts sending you on a QME merry-go-round. Still the injured worker believes he or she is in good hands and the health problems will be taken care of. Then come the boilerplate denials of the medical treatments ordered by the doctors the employers chose for the injured worker.

Then come the rumors from work. Your co-workers are no longer allowed to talk to you if they want to keep their jobs. Suddenly you start hearing that you are a fraud or you are a malingerer exaggerating your injury. Then you start noticing an unusual car parked outside your house and hearing from your neighbors that a private investigator is going around talking with your neighbors and insinuating that you are being investigated for Workers Comp fraud. Why? Simply put, because at this point the insurance company will try to get any little piece of dirt to use against the injured worker in court. And we thought stalking was against the law.

Your children become scared because they don't know who is watching them and following them to school as well as following you and your family any where you may decide to go. And then comes the letter saying you have been fired from your job on trumped up charges or that the company has downsized and unfortunately your position has been eliminated. This is where all injured workers begin to become aware of the hell of a life that they have been thrown into as a result of their work injury.

As time goes by, you are not getting the needed medical care that is supposedly guaranteed you by law, so you go consider going to an attorney as you have not gotten any help from the legal assistance officer at the WCAB. Most injured workers never even think of getting an attorney until they are caught between a rock and a hard place. "Who would have thought I would need an attorney to get benefits the laws say I am entitled to," they often say to me.

Then after exhausting all other avenues the injured worker decides to hire an attorney if he or she can find one to take the case. It normally takes an injured worker approximately one year before considering hiring an attorney. There are just no other options available to the injured worker because the state does not enforce the laws that are supposed to protect them. Obviously they have more important priorities.

The injured worker is already feeling insecure and lazy for not being able to work and provide for his or her family. He or she is bored to death because he or she has been working all of his or her life and even though the pain is intense and the medications cause him or her to sleep, he or she still feels he or she ought to be out doing something.

After hiring an attorney he or she finds out that this injury is more serious than first thought. He or she is going to be out of work either temporarily or permanently. The ironic thing is that the doctor said if he or she had properly received the prescribed treatment at an earlier date that he or she would already be back to work.

Unknown to the injured worker at this time, the battle has just begun. He or she is in for the fight of his or her life. The family is tired of him or her being sick all the time and the moodiness he or she displays out of frustration in the Workers Comp system. The children and sometimes the spouse don't understand why mommy or daddy are no fun anymore. They can't understand why there is never any extra money. Why they can't sit on mommy or daddy's lap anymore. Why can't they go to the doctor when they are sick and why does the electricity, water, gas and phones keep getting cut off? Why is there never enough food in the house and what has changed so much that there is never enough to eat?

Mommy or daddy always seem so very worried and definitely short tempered. Sometimes he or she never even gets out of bed each day. Mommy and daddy fight all the time. Why can't the doctor just make it all better? The injured worker has become so depressed by his or her treatment in the comp system that he or she begins to lose his or her self esteem. He or she wonders which is worse, the workers compensation system or the initial injury. He or she actually wonders if the family wouldn't be better off without him or her.

Between the pain and depression, he or she often thinks of suicide as the only way out of this awful mess. Thank God, there are support groups around to see him or her through the rough times and remind him or her how much his or her family needs him or her.

Then there is the acceptance thing. It is so hard to accept a permanent disability. The injured workers whole future is now shot, leaving him or her to the mercy of the Workers Compensation system for the rest of his or her life and it has been a very adversarial system to live in so far. Could it always be this bad? How will he or she fill the hole left in his or her gut by the reality of his or her injury? I mean who wants to be nonproductive? Who wants to wake up each day and watch the world go by leaving him or her behind? Somehow the void has to be filled but with what?

He or she can't consistently do anything because he or she has no idea which day will be a good day and which one will be bad. He or she has doctors appointments to go to and he or she tires so much easier than he or she used to. When the pain is really bad, the medications he or she is on makes him or her sleep all the time.

All of these things wear on the family. The spouse and the children are often either on Welfare, Medical, or Social Security. No other insurance is available or affordable and it is now considered a luxury as opposed to a necessity. And in many cases divorces often follow. I can certainly vouch for that; it happened to me.

The kids are hungry, need new clothes, and need to go to the dentist. Who will be paying for all of that or is that just one of the hidden human costs? The injured worker is so stressed that he or she cannot provide the necessities for his or her family and he or she has no idea how to make things better. He or she draws closer and closer to a nervous breakdown with the draw of each breath.

The older kids drop out of school to help provide for their family. The younger ones just plain don't understand why everything is so different. By now all the money that he or she has saved is gone and he or she is one step closer to homelessness. He or she has already sold everything of any value. Where do I go from here you say? A week later he or she is now living on the streets compliments of an on the job injury and an unfeeling, uncaring sociopathic Workers Compensation insurance carrier. Still a mediation and court date has not been set. It can take years to get to a final hearing in the Workers Compensation system.

The family has not only fallen apart but has also fallen into poverty and homelessness. The comp carrier is still jerking him or her around with no relief to his or her harassment in sight. The injured worker still has never gotten the prescribed treatment by his or her doctor. The injury is much worse, if not life threatening, and will cost three times more for treatment than it would have had it been treated promptly in the beginning.

The saddest part of this whole situation is that there are laws that are supposedly in place to stop this kind of human suffering. Unfortunately they are rarely, if ever, enforced by those in state government. They are more interested in following the money trail, than to do the enforce the laws that they swore to uphold. In a nutshell, there is absolutely no accountability by our state officals, and when an injured worker does attempt to hold them accountable as has been done many times in the past, they bounce it around from agency to agency with the hopes that it will get caught between the cracks and disappear. A good example of this is the story of Southern California worker Larry Nign.

The Workers Compensation insurance industry can maim and murder injured workers by their negligence and incompetence and NO ONE is accountable or for that matter RESPONSIBLE for those acts. You could never get away with that anywhere except in Workers Compensation.

How long will our elected officials allow this kind of suffering to go on? How long will society itself allow this to go on? There are ways to fix this problem but no one seems to be willing to do it because it is not what the insurance industry special interest groups want. Once again I ask WHAT IS THE HUMAN COST? When will California's injured workers become the true priority of the Workers Compensation system? When will it serve the people it was designed for. When will human life be more important than the almighty insurance dollar? When will our elected legislators stop pimping and pandering for the insurance industry and start taking care of those who pay their salaries?

It's time the rights of injured workers were upheld and we have created an Injured Workers Bill Of Rights! It's time to get this on the ballot and let the people of California vote, and have their say about how Workers Compensation benefits will be delivered, instead of these pompous legislators who pimp and pander for the special interests in exchange for political contributions!

We're not afraid to tell the truth, because we are Californians Injured At Work, and we're not putting up with this rampant fraud & corruption anymore!

If you can, support our television program "Injured On The Job" which is being carried by Public & Community Access Cable television stations around the state. Our goal is to saturate the state with this program, but it takes money to cover all of the production costs which are now being borne by a few select individuals.

This is one place where you can see where your money goes, and can certainly see your money at work. For more information go to www.injuredonthejob.tv, and watch our programs which are also streamed on the internet for those who don't have cable.

Join us and help us deliver the real truth to the people of California!