Abstract
Throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s, California's workers' compensation system was on the brink of crisis. Now, California's system is much improved: legal and medical costs, fraud and abuse, stress claims, and use of vocational rehabilitation are down, while counterproductive pricing arrangements have been eliminated and inadequate maximum benefit levels reevaluated. The California Workers' Compensation Reform Act and two sets of later amendments have contributed greatly to reining in abuse and reducing costs. But improvement is always possible. The main constituencies of workers' compensation-insurers, management, and in many states, organized labor-must continue to cooperate in improving the system.
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