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ACTION NEEDED
Write to the Assembly Committee on Insurance opposing Senate Bill (SB) 632 (Arreguín, D-Berkeley), which would expand workers’ compensation presumptive eligibility. Letters should be submitted via the online letter submission portal; once you have sent your letter, please send a copy to Coni Segretto, legislative assistant, so CHA can track submissions.
TIMING
Submit your letter no later than Wednesday, July 2. The bill has passed the Senate floor and is heading to the Assembly Committee on Insurance; submitting letters ASAP will help encourage the committee chair to not set the bill for a hearing at all.
RESOURCES
BACKGROUND
CHA continues opposition to SB 632, which would create the first-ever broad-based private sector workers’ compensation presumption — covering a variety of illnesses and injuries, including COVID-19 and SARS — and extend the presumptions after the employee’s termination. SB 632 would undermine California’s highly effective and well-regarded workers’ compensation system and set a troubling precedent.
It is also wholly unsupported by data. Historical data from the California Workers’ Compensation Institute show that health care employers not only have one of the lowest workers’ compensation claim denial rates of any sector, but also approve more than 90% of claims — irrefutable proof that the system is taking care of its workers when they get sick or are injured on the job.
The conditions that SB 632 would cover are already addressed in the current workers’ compensation system:
- Infectious diseases such as staph infections, tuberculosis, meningitis, bloodborne infections, and respiratory diseases such as COPD, COVID-19, and all its variants
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Musculoskeletal injuries (muscle, tendon, ligament, nerve, joint, bone, and blood vessel)
- Cancers such as liver, myeloid leukemia, kidney, multiple myeloma, ovarian, breast, nasopharyngeal, thyroid, brain, nervous system, HPV-positive tonsillar, and others
Any increase in workers’ compensation costs will directly and immediately increase the cost of health care at a time when affordability of care is a priority. This action would also make hospitals — already bracing for likely Medicare and Medicaid cuts — even more vulnerable and challenged in providing access to high-quality care. Even a single claim could be valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. CHA estimates this new mandate will cost hospitals $1.6 billion.