Please do not cut benefits to permanently impaired workers. Send HB 194 back to the drawing board.
Why is this important?
I am a Tennessee employee who has sat and watched the Tennessee legislature and state Chamber of Commerce for 3 years bully the average working man in Tennessee. In a state that has already "reformed" Workers' Compensation 3 times since 1994 and has seen premium rates decrease that whole time, yet another law is determined to overhaul workers' comp in Tennessee. Most cases where workers are permanently impaired because of job-related injuries, under the proposed new law, will see reductions in payments by 66% or more. The bill is being touted as creating a more efficient system that will put people back to work quicker and have them receive benefits faster, but no one is talking about these drastic reductions to the worker that has a permanent impairment or who may not ever be able to go to work again. There has to be a way that we can make the system more efficient without cutting the benefits to the injured worked and our legislature has people smart enough to figure it out if we only work a little harder. We should not harm these injured workers even further solely because we are in too big of a hurry and too short sighted to see how they will be devastated by HB 194.
