This blog is the fifth part of a series that explores Illinois’ workers’ compensation system, the state’s inadequate reforms, and opportunities policymakers should seize now to make the system less costly and more effective for employers and workers alike.
Illinois has the lowest credit rating among the 50 states, forcing taxpayers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more in borrowing costs than residents of states in better fiscal condition.
Illinois’ monthslong budget gridlock, $111 billion in government-worker pension debt, and more than a decade of unbalanced budgets have resulted in credit downgrades for Illinois and the highest borrowing costs of any state in the nation.
Part 2 of Illinois’ broken workers’ compensation system: the reform law signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2005, which addressed medical fees and billing, provided benefit increases, and contained anti-fraud provisions.
While the state moves to impose costly new requirements on private businesses in the name of privacy, the state is itself violating the privacy of thousands of Illinoisans.
The former governor’s landmark pension bill paved the way for two decades of go-along-to-get-along pension politics, turning Illinois' pension debt into the nation's largest retirement crisis.