Take 78 million Baby Boomers and their retirement plans, mix with a woebegone social security system and the global economic meltdown of 2008/2009. Add in rising health care costs and the insurance industry’s natural propensity to avoid troubling issues, and you have a recipe for a looming catastrophe of the first order. That’s the premise that Lynch Ryan CEO Tom Lynch puts forth in his article in the current issue of the IAIABC Journal, Aging America: The Iceberg Dead Ahead, which IAIABC has given us permission to make available to our readers.
Tom describes the massive problems that the aging workforce presents to workers compensation systems – problems that are compounded by funding problems with other social insurance programs. He makes the case that neither states, the federal government, or insurers are prepared for the claims and cost problems that will develop over the next decade, and offers recommendations to address these problems, including the creation of a special federal commission.
Admittedly, we are partial to the author, but we think the article is worth a read.
In addition to putting in a plug for the article, we’d like to call your attention to the publication that it appears in. The IAIABC Journal is published two times per year by the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC), an association of government agencies that administer and regulate their jurisdiction’s workers’ compensation acts. It’s a peer-reviewed Journal, and one of a few remaining venues that publishes original research papers and in-depth treatment of workers compensation issues and opinions. Issues are substantial – the current issue weighs in at 158 pages. It is edited by Robert Aurbach. For a sampling of content, we’ve taken the liberty of printing this issue’s article abstracts to give you a flavor – click to continue.
