	Workers' Compensation in the United States

Workers' compensation provides cash and medical benefits to workers who are injured or become ill in the course of their employment and benefits to the survivors of workers killed on the job. Benefits are provided without regard to fault and are the exclusive remedy for workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths. Employers are responsible for providing workers' compensation benefits to their workers and generally purchase insurance to cover these costs. The Grand Bargain

Workers' compensation is often referred to as a grand bargain between workers and employers. In exchange for this coverage, employees are prohibited from suing their employers for workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths. Employers are protected from lawsuits but must pay defined benefits in all cases, regardless of fault, liability, or defense. The LHWCA has been extended several times to cover other groups of private-sector workers. Coordination with Social Security
A worker may receive disability benefits under both workers' compensation and the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. There is no federal mandate that states have workers' compensation laws and no federal standards for workers' compensation systems. With the general duty clause, Congress established that every employer has an affirmative responsibility to provide a safe workplace to its workers, thus reinforcing the basic tenet of workers' compensation that employers are responsible for the injuries, illnesses, and deaths of their employees, regardless of fault. Beginning January 1, 1975, states would have been required to operate workers' compensation systems with the following elements:
compulsory coverage of all employees, including coverage for occupational illnesses equivalent to the coverage provided by the federal black lung benefits program; no duration or monetary limit on total disability benefits paid; no duration or monetary limit on medical or rehabilitation benefits; total disability benefits paid at two-thirds of the worker's pre-disability wage, with maximum benefits increasing to 200% of the state's average wage by January 1, 1978, and minimum benefits of at least 50% of the state's average wage, with annual adjustments to benefits to reflect growth in the state's average wage; survivors benefits payable to a spouse for life or until two-years after remarriage and to children until the age of 18 or 23 if enrolled in higher education or for life if disabled; a waiting period of no more than three days with retroactive benefits paid after no more than 14 days of benefit duration; maintenance of a SIF; reconsideration of denials of benefits made prior to the enactment of the federal standards; the right of workers to select the initial treating physician from a list maintained by the state workers' compensation agency, with the state agency having oversight of medical care and the right to order necessary changes to care; a three-year statute of limitation on claims beginning with when the worker knew or should have known that his or her condition was related to his or her employment; state regulation of attorney's fees; compromise and release settlements must be approved by the state workers' compensation agency; employee choice of state system if work involved more than more state; measures to ensure payment of benefits in case of employer or insurer insolvency. Noncompulsory Workers' Compensation in Texas

In Texas, employers may opt-out of the workers' compensation system and employers who chose not to participate in workers' compensation are termed "nonsubscribers." Unlike the Texas noncompulsory system, in Oklahoma, an employer who opted-out of workers' compensation by providing an approved alternative benefit plan retained its protection from lawsuits for employment-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths.
Workers' compensation provides cash and medical benefits to workers who are injured or become ill in the course of their employment and provides benefits to the survivors of workers killed on the job. Benefits are provided without regard to fault and are the exclusive remedy for workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths. Nearly all workers in the United States are covered by workers' compensation. With the exception of federal employees and some small groups of private-sector employees covered by federal law, workers compensation is provided by a network of state programs. In general, employers purchase insurance to provide for workers' compensation benefits.
Workers' compensation has been called a grand bargain between employers and workers that developed at the beginning of the 20th century in response to dissatisfaction with the tort system as a method of compensating workers for occupational injuries, illnesses, and deaths. Under this grand bargain, workers receive guaranteed, no-fault benefits for injuries, illnesses, and deaths, but forfeit their rights to sue their employers. Employers receive protection from lawsuits but must provide benefits regardless of fault.
Recently, concerns have been raised over what some allege are cuts to state workers' compensation benefits or policy changes that make it harder for workers to receive benefits. These cuts and policy changes may be shifting some of the costs associated with workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths away from the employer and to the employee or social programs, such as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Medicare.
There is no federal requirement for states to have workers' compensation systems and no minimum federal standards for state systems. The decentralized nature of workers' compensation led to unsuccessful calls for minimum state standards in the early 1970s and has caused concerns over benefit equity among the states today.
In 2013, Oklahoma joined Texas in making its workers' compensation system noncompulsory. Unlike in Texas, Oklahoma employers were permitted to opt-out of workers' compensation by offering alternative benefits to employees and keep their protection from lawsuits, whereas Texas employers are exposed to legal liability in the event of employee injury when employers opt-out of worker's compensation. In 2016, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the state's noncompulsory workers' compensation system violated the state's constitution.