An Alternative to Workers' Compensation--24 Hour Benefits
探讨用24小时员工福利计划替代美国工人赔偿制度的成本，通过案例研究分析过渡方案的经济可行性。
The workers' compensation system in the United States has performed a valuable function. It was introduced at a time when very few individuals had any protection against the risks associated with injury or illness. It provided protection to a limited group (employed persons and their dependents) against a specified loss (income loss and medical expenses as specified in the various laws) resulting from a designated cause (employment related injury or illness). This limited protection was an optimum response to the conditions and attitudes of the time. Since its inception, however, a number of changes have occurred that bring into question its continued existence. The author has argued elsewhere [ 15, 16] that these changes have collectively created a climate in which it is less desirable to maintain a separate workers' compensation system. For both practical and political reasons, the demise of workers' compensation is certainly not imminent. A step in the direction of phasing it out, however, could be made by transferring primary responsibility for the costs of work-related injuries to employee benefit plans, with workers' compensation relegated to an excess status. The ultimate goal, however, is the complete elimination of workers' compensation as a separate system and its replacement with a system of privately provided employee benefits on a 24-hour basis. This paper focuses on the costs of making this change. A case study of one employee benefit plan is used for the analysis. The first section of the paper summarizes the arguments favoring change. A note on the transition stage is next, followed by a discussion of the differences between workers' compensation and other employee benefits. The final section presents the cost calculations.