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Editor's Correspondence
January 26, 1998

The High Cost of Worker's Compensation

Arch Intern Med. 1998;158(2):195-196. doi:

The recent article in the ARCHIVES entitled "Occupational Injury and Illness in the United States" by Leigh et al1 is quite accurate in assessing the costs of occupational injuries and illnesses. It also emphasizes the paucity of public attention that is given to this problem despite the tremendous drain that occupational injury and illness places on our societal and economic resources. However, I was surprised to find that the article completely omitted any reference to the inefficiencies, waste, and not infrequent fraud that are inherent in the present system of workers' compensation.