I May Be Psychic

I had no sooner made a post here about New York raiding the reserves of its Workers Compensation fund, and adding, as an afterthought that it was fortunate that Illinois does not have such a fund for politicians to raid, than I read that Illinois lawmakers are proposing exactly that, a competitive state fund for Workers Compensation.

H.B. 2919 has cleared the Illinois State House Committee on State Government Administration late Wednesday, it was reported.  But I swear I hadn't seen the report when I made my earlier post.

While such a competitive fund could potentially offer employers a better alternative than the current Assigned Risk Plan administered by NCCI, there are sooooo many potential pitfalls with the idea that it is difficult to see a bright future for this proposal.

For one thing, the bill would have the Illinois Department of Insurance administer the fund.  But the DOI has been suffering in recent years from a massive drain of experienced people--as the state encouraged long-term workers to retire.

And of course there is the bad example set in so many other states of politicians raiding the reserves of state WC funds to cover other budget shortfalls.

Stay tuned for more exciting action in Springfield as the interested parties line up.