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MICHAEL SANDLERWith a few changes to shore up GOP support, the Legislature approved the proposal mostly along party lines.
TALLAHASSEE - Florida lawmakers late Tuesday sent Gov. Jeb Bush the most comprehensive changes to the state's workers' compensation law in nearly a decade, pleasing insurance companies, angering workers and narrowly escaping a whirlwind of last-minute maneuvering.
The bill (SB 50A) passed the House, 81-34, and the Senate, 25-14, on mostly party lines and cost one Democratic senator his chairmanship for trying to stop it.
Insurance companies prevailed after spending millions of dollars on campaign contributions, drafting the legislation and providing tip sheets for lawmakers for voting on amendments. They say it will bring lower rates.
Opponents said the savings will come at a cost to injured workers.
Under the bill, a convenience store clerk raped at gunpoint would be limited to six months of psychiatric care.
That same clerk would have a more difficult time trying to sue any insurance companies that delayed or denied claims. The bill now limits fees her attorney would collect from the insurance company if she succeeded and would force her to pay the insurance company's legal fees if she lost.
Bush, who is expected to sign the bill, added it to the special session only after Senate President Jim King made a deal with House Speaker Johnnie Byrd to take up the House bill without allowing senators to change it.
King acknowledged that a growing number of Republicans were joining Democrats in questioning the fairness of the bill. Before passing it, King promised senators he would commission an interim study to evaluate the effects of the new law and draft another bill next year to correct any inadequacies.
But he stood by the deal, and his Republicans colleagues fell in behind him.
Sen. Skip Campbell, D-Tamarac, nearly halted the bill with a legislative maneuver requiring senators to consider only the House version of the bill (HB 25A) as called for by the governor when he added the measure to the special session. But to do that, the Senate needed two-thirds of its members to agree, and Campbell rallied Democrats to block it.
King used a maneuver of his own to keep the bill alive that involved getting the governor to adjust his special session call. King later punished Campbell by stripping him of his coveted chairmanship of the Senate Finance and Tax Committee.
"I have a personal opinion that the process has been violated," Campbell said. "I feel so sad that we are losing the ability to be legislators. We are followers, and if that's all you want to be, vote for this bill."
Republicans managed to quell growing opposition in their own party by adding a few last-minute amendments, including one of the most controversial provisions that would have required an injured worker to lose both arms, both legs, both hands, both feet, both eyes, or a combination of any two to qualify as permanently disabled for life.
Instead, they kept the existing definition of "catastrophic injury" that allows a person who loses one appendage to qualify. But Democrats noted that the bill included language that allows insurance companies to deny those benefits if the carrier or employer can prove the injured worker is "physically capable of engaging in at least sedentary employment" within 50 miles of his or her home.
"I'm not happy with it either," said Sen. Michael Bennett, R-Bradenton. But he congratulated Campbell on influencing the changes made. "We have a commitment to go back (next year) and make it better."