The workers compensation system in Minnesota and other states were initially established to provide benefits such as wage loss, medical benefits and rehabilitation for injured workers. Now….things are changing, causing serious consequences for thousands of employees’ who have suffered serious injuries at work.

A ProPublica and NPR investigation found that the cutbacks can be so drastic that injured workers plummet into poverty while spending years battling insurance companies for medical treatment and wage loss. These changes are pushed by big businesses and insurance companies to save money at great cost to injured workers. However, the taxpayers end up footing the bill by paying billions of dollars for social security disability insurance, medicare and medicaid to replace the lost wages and medical costs denied by workers’ comp.