Worker’s Compensation
Worker’s Compensation
The patient protection and affordable care act was first developed by President William Howard Taft in 1908 as an act to protect railroad workers who were working for the interstate commerce. The law was enacted in order to cover the employee’s medical expenses. It covered medical expenses that an employee incurred for the period out of work because of an injury that was experienced at workplace. Wisconsin state was the first state to develop and implement worker’s compensation law in 1911, and the last state was Mississippi which passed this law in 1948. For a firm to operate in a given industry, it was mandatory to have worker’s compensation insurance system to cater for any expenses an employee would incur. This act has influenced the world of human resource to ensure that there exist safety measures and rules for employees else the organization has to cater for the expenses that came on the way when an injury occurs, (Sathiyakumar, et al, 2012).
Before 1911, evidence shows that employers had little concern on injuries that occurred for employees in the work place. Employees were supposed to take care of their injury expenses, but this has changed since this law was passed and enacted. The employer was required to incur an extra cost in taking worker’s compensation insurance plan. It was made mandatory in order to allow any given business to operate in a given environment. This was to ensure that the employer developed a healthy, working environment that gives employee maximum safety when accomplishing organization duties. The act was not that good for the employer because it made business organizations incur an extra cost to ensure that safety standards have been established. An extra cost on paying premiums for compensation insurance was incurred something that firms did not incur before the law was passed, (Sathiyakumar, et al, 2012).
For employees, the law had a positive impact as compared to the negative impact. Initially, employees were left to cater for their medical and other expenses that occurred due to work injury from the company. The contributory negligence ruled the environment simply because an employee was held responsible for injury consequences and not the employer. Passing of law made an employee a little bit far from the initial concept simply because it made employer cater for the expenses. Although it was not fully left to the employer, employee’s contribution was minimal as compared to the actual expenses given occurrence of an injury. This act reduced the level of injury occurrence simply because organizations ensured that safety standards were developed and implemented in the work environment, (Sathiyakumar, et al, 2012).
Most employers neglected employees welfare in respect to their working conditions making assumptions that employees knew and understood risks associated with their working environment. The law was necessary simply because some organization would develop and environment that pose great threats to occurrence of an injury. In such an environment, an employee may get an injury that would make him incur some expenses. In order to prevent such situations, the law was passed so that the employer should create an environment that is suitable for work and keeps employees away from unhealthy conditions. In general, the act was necessary in order to help employer create a healthy, working environment for employees, (Sathiyakumar, et al, 2012).
Reference:
Sathiyakumar, V. et al. (2012). The Future of Worker’s Compensation under PPACA. Retrieved from, http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/nov12/advocacy2.asp, On December 20, 2012
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