Volunteer Advocacy: The Need for National Workers' Compensation

To the Editor: Early in 2009, Congress introduced HR 635, the National Commission on State Workers' Compensation Laws Act. Additionally, the major initiatives since September 11, 2001 aimed at recruiting, training, and maintaining a disaster volunteer workforce necessitate a consistently equitable national workers' compensation program. Since the terrorist attacks, insurers have been taking a closer look at their exposure to disasters, both natural and manmade. Some forecasts indicate that workers' compensation claims for terrorism could cost an insurer anywhere from $300,000 to $1 million per employee, depending on the state.3 This has caused many areas to be classified as high risk which, in turn, has led to steep increases in the cost of insurance and added to more inconsistency in coverage across states.