Document R27V1pGdE7g9xG8ZxYVjx9Xea

Rehabilitation Medical rehabilitation Vocational rehabilitation 187 Degree of disability Temporary disability Permanent partial disability Permanent total disability The exclusive remedy doctrine and third party liability 189 Private Insurer Programs Classifications of insurers Self-insurers 192 Cost Levels and Allocation Cost levels Workmen's compensation incentives for safety 193 References 195 In the early 1970's, about 14,000 workers died each year from work-connected injuries or diseases, another 90,000 were permanently disabled, and more than 2,400,000 were tem porarily disabled--and these deaths and dis abilities were only one-fifth of the total ac cidental injuries from all causes Injured workers and their families suffered substantial economic losses as well as bodily injuries Their employers and society also suffered siz able economic losses When a worker dies, is disabled, or merely requires medical attention because of a workconnected injury or disease, the economic consequences affect the worker, his family, his employer, and society Economic Losses The worker and his family may suffer two types of economic losses (a) a loss of earn ings and (b) extra expenses If a worker dies because of work-related injury or sickness, his survivors lose the income he would otherwise have earned, less the amount that he would have spent to maintain himself during the remainder of his working career and his retirement years This loss can be substantial Total and permanent disability cause an even greater earnings loss than death because the worker must be maintained Permanent partial disability causes some fraction of the permanent total disability loss, depending upon the proportion of the annual earnings lost A worker who is totally dis abled for a temporary period loses his income for a specific number of weeks or months Loss of even a month's earnings is a senous loss for the typical worker In addition to these earnings losses, the deceased or disabled worker may no longer provide valuable house hold services that must now be forgone or re placed at some additional expense Not all injured workers are disabled but almost all require some form of medical at tention For all injuries combined, medical expenses are less than the total earnings loss, but for many workers, their medical expenses exceed their earning loss In addition to these losses, society loses the taxes that would have been paid by the in jured employees and the products or services they would have produced Some injured em ployees and families become public assistance beneficiaries and must be supported by other members of society Workmen's Compensation in the United States In the United States, efforts to implement a system of compensation for industrial injuries lagged far behind the countries of Europe As work-related injuries and diseases and their consequences grew less and less tolerable towards the end of the 19th century, the situ ation became npe for a radical change The first evidence of interest in workmen's compen sation was seen in 1893 when legislators seized ujpon John Graham Brooks' account of the German system as a clue to the direction 173