KINDER'S COMMENTARY: WORKERS' COMP NEEDS AN OVERHAUL

Workers' compensation.

Mention the words and for many, scores on the MEGO index will shoot off the chart. (MEGO is an acronym invented by columnist William Safire to denote the words My Eyes Glaze Over.) Not a very sexy issue, to be sure. For viewer appeal, it'll never compete with the O.J. trial or the latest from "Current Affair" on the adventures of Joey Buttafuco. But workers' comp is a nearly $1 billion cost item for Missouri business. And employers across Missouri are telling their leaders in government that it is out of control.

Missourians to Restore Fair Workers' Compensation is a broad-based coalition of business groups and chambers of commerce from across Missouri. Formed in 1994 by more than 50 business groups, including the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, this coalition currently represents more than 36,000 Missouri employers, and it represents many times that number of our state's jobs.

The main goal of this coalition is to promote and support legislation that determines which injuries are to considered for workers' comp and which should not be considered. This is a reasonable goal when you consider some of the now-infamous cases that have been ruled compensable under workers' comp in Missouri. In one case, a woman was awarded $29,000 when she fell off stilts at a company picnic. In another case a roofer who hurt his wrist playing volleyball at a company picnic was awarded $20,000. Some have suggested that either company picnics need to be outlawed or someone needs to take a long, hard look at the definition of a work-related injury.

Recall the original purpose of workers' comp: to compensate injured workers for injuries that are unquestionably [ITAL. work-related. Since a 1983 decision by the Missouri Supreme Court, our state has moved away from this original tether. Costs have exploded from $200 million to nearly $1 billion in 12 years.

Largely because we have moved away from a policy of compensating only for work-related accidents, Missouri businesses have found themselves caught in a vicious cost spiral that is threatening jobs in our state. Recent years have seen back-to-back, double-digit increases in workers' comp premiums. Not a week goes by that I don't hear from employers that they need relief from this back-breaking burden.

The need for reform is sufficiently clear that a bipartisan majority of both houses of your General Assembly agrees. Our system of government being what it is, however, majorities don't always prevail. Gov. Mel Carnahan and the leaders of both the House and Senate hold most of the whip hands. They apparently don't feel workers' comp is in crisis. They feel we "fixed" it two years ago with Senate Bill 251, a well-intended but ultimately half-hearted measure. Moreover, the governor's staff had only a ho-hum response to a recent national report that rated the business climates of the states. Missouri got a D. The report, issued by the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a Washington, D.C.-based group, told an interesting tale. Colorado, for instance, which dealt with comprehensive reform of workers' comp several years ago, earned an A in the same report card.

Because of this lack of interest from the current leadership, reform efforts were unavailing the last two years in the Missouri Legislature. As we departed Jefferson City upon our May 12 adjournment, I was one of a bipartisan majority of 18 senators and 83 representatives who signed a letter to Gov. Carnahan, urging him to call a special session to deal with workers' comp reform. To date, I am unaware of any response.

This attitude of denial closely resembles attitudes prevailing in Washington, D.C., before last fall's elections. Badly needed reforms were ignored. Action was stalled amid lots of chatter about how much was being done. The American people didn't buy it, though. An electoral earthquake rumbled across America last November, leading to this year's action on one hugely popular reform after another.

From the examples of other states that have acted, we know how to reform workers' comp. What is lacking, especially at the top, is the political will to act. If attitudes don't change, it will take an electoral earthquake in Missouri in November 1996 to effect the real changes we need to reform workers' comp in our state.

~Peter Kinder is the associate publisher of the Southeast Missourian and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.