Workers’ compensation reform became an issue during an appearance by the Republican and Democratic candidates for Illinois attorney general during a forum in Normal on Wednesday, according to press reports.
The Chicago Tribune reported that Republican candidate Erika Harold supports business-friendly reforms proposed by Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, who is running for re-election. That brought a rebuke by Democratic challenger Kwame Raoul, who is now a state senator.
“You’ve never practiced workers’ comp,” Raoul said. “You’ve never weighed in on the policy-making around workers’ comp. So why all of a sudden should we trust you to be the champion of workers’ comp policy-making as attorney general? You have no experience.”
Raoul proposed his own business-friendly reforms. In 2017 he introduced legislation that would have imposed a fee schedule based on Medicare’s Resource-Based Relative Value Scale. The Democratic majority was considering the reforms as a means of enticing Rauner to pass a budget.
The legislation failed to pass and Republicans joined Democrats to override Rauner’s veto of the budget bill.
This article was first published by Work Comp Central.
