Occupational Disease and Workers’ Compensation: Coverage, Costs, and Consequences

Details

• Personal Author:
  Leigh JP ; Robbins JA
• Description:
  Most of the costs of occupational disease are not covered by workers' compensation. First, the authors estimated the deaths and costs for all occupational disease in 1999, using epidemiological studies. Among the greatest contributors were job-related cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and circulatory disease. Second, the authors estimated the number of workers' compensation cases, costs, and deaths for 1999, using data from up to 16 states representing all regions of the country. Unlike the epidemiological studies that emphasized fatal diseases, the workers' compensation estimates emphasized nonfatal diseases and conditions like tendonitis and hernia. Comparisons of the epidemiological and workers' compensation estimates suggest that in 1999, workers' compensation missed roughly 46,000 to 93,000 deaths and 8 billion US dollars to 23 billion US dollars in medical costs. These deaths and costs represented substantial cost shifting from workers' compensation systems to individual workers, their families, private medical insurance, and taxpayers (through Medicare and Medicaid). Designing policies to reduce the cost shifting and its associated inefficiency will be challenging. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Delivery Of Health Care Demography Economics Occupational Diseases Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Economics Costs Demographic Characteristics Economic Impact Employment Health Care Medical Care Occupational Diseases Occupational Illness OSHA Workers Compensation

  More +
• ISSN:
  0887-378X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant ; Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  82
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20029443
• Citation:
  Milbank Q 2004 Dec; 82(4):689-721
• Contact Point Address:
  Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, TB 168, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616-8638
• Email:
  pleigh@ucdavis.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• Performing Organization:
  University of California - Davis
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19970101
• Source Full Name:
  Milbank Quarterly
• End Date:
  19991231
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:454f6f91f2be991357f68f34ccfbe024915160d8f8dd53c8ebebf9f4c2cae0e22b8116fb697c73023e8d2be19d445a219ba38b965215cb15053daf7e9ff0111b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/190423/cdc_190423_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 130.86 KB ]