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Taxpayers, worker pay for most work injury

DAVIS, Calif., May 25 (UPI) -- Almost 80 percent of the cost of U.S. work illnesses and injuries are paid by workers and the taxpayers rather than by employer, researchers say.

Lead author Paul Leigh -- a professor of public health sciences affiliated with the University of California, Davis, Center for Healthcare Policy -- said workers' compensation insurance is not used nearly as much as it should be to cover the multibillion-dollar cost of workplace illnesses and injuries.

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Leigh and colleagues found the total annual costs for occupational injuries and illnesses in 2007 were nearly $250 billion, and 21 percent -- or $51.7 billion -- of those costs were covered by workers' compensation. The remaining 79 percent -- $198 billion -- is paid by:

-- Other non-workers' compensation health insurance: $14.22 billion.

-- Workers and their families: $10.38 billion.

-- Medicare: $7.16 billion.

-- Medicaid: $5.47 billion.

-- $160.68 billion in lost productivity was covered by other sources, including workers and their families, the Social Security Disability fund and state disability funds.

"Cost-shifting affects everyone, because we're all paying higher Medicare and income taxes to help cover that 79 percent," said Leigh said in a statement. "Workers' injuries and illnesses cost much more than what current workers' compensation payments suggest, and the resulting low premiums provide little incentive for companies to promote workplace safety."

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The findings were published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

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