Wading through the competing interest and complex issues surrounding California’s troubled workers’ comp system is not for the weak-of-heart. In an attempt to set forth all the relevant viewpoints we brought together an 11-member panel to discuss practical solutions for the state’s troubled workers’ comp system.
- Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi
- Republican State Senator Charles Poochigian, representing Governor Schwarzenegger’s reform bill to the State Senate
- Democratic State Senator Richard Alarcon, chair of the Labor and Industrial Relations Committee
- Chris George, business owner and the proponent of a workers’ comp. reform initiative
- Donald Smith of the Arizona State Compensation Fund
- Richard Wooley, past president of the California Applicant’s Attorneys Association
- Dr. Michael Cohen with Sutter Health @ Work
- Kelly Nichols, an injured worker
- Lee Thurston owner/president of Furniture by Thurston
- Mike Mattoch, spokesman for the American Insurance Association
- Frank Neuhauser, expert on workers’ comp, UC Berkeley