Workers' comp needs to be fixed

To the editor:

A recent story in the Southeast Missourian described how changes to Missouri's workers' compensation system made in 2005 have benefited employers, changing the system to favor the employer over the worker. Indeed, that has happened, and with disastrous results for Missouri workers.

Workers hurt on the job in Missouri can look forward to months or years of fighting with large insurance companies whose goal often seems to be to starve the injured worker into settling their claim even before they are physically able to work again. Denial of benefits such as medical equipment and money to live on, are common. Many injured workers find themselves applying for public assistance such as Medicaid in order to survive, causing the taxpayers to incur expenses that should have been paid by insurance companies.

When President Theodore Roosevelt conceived workers' compensation, he envisioned it as a system to protect the worker, not as one to help enrich the employer or big insurance companies. Workers' compensation in Missouri does not serve the worker as President Roosevelt envisioned, and it needs to be fixed, not bragged about.

WILL RICHARDSON, Jackson