TABLE 6.
Number of Workers’ Compensation Deaths, across States and Compared with Epidemiological Estimates
| Panel A: Across 15 States, 1990 to 2002 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Years of Raw Data | Estimated Annual WC Deathsa | 1999 Percentage of States’ Population Contribution to U.S. Populationb | 1999 Percentage of Epidemiological Deaths Missed by WCc |
| California | 1992–1993 | 116.58 | 12.15% | 98.6% |
| Colorado | 1998–2000 | 10.07 | 1.49% | 99.0% |
| Connecticut | 1994 | 27.00 | 1.20% | 96.6% |
| Florida | 1998–2002 | 14.40 | 5.54% | 99.6% |
| Kansas | 1995–2002 | 7.38 | 0.97% | 98.9% |
| Maine | 1993–2002 | 19.10 | 0.46% | 93.8% |
| Minnesota | 1995–2001 | 13.80 | 1.75% | 98.8% |
| Mississippi | 2002 | 17.70 | 1.02% | 97.8% |
| Missouri | 1997–2002 | 5.83 | 2.00% | 99.6% |
| New Mexico | 1995–2002 | 0.76 | 0.63% | 99.8% |
| North Carolina | 1997–2002 | 16.01 | 2.81% | 99.2% |
| Oregon | 1990–1999 | 2.10 | 1.22% | 99.7% |
| Rhode Island | 1992–2001 | 0.60 | 0.36% | 99.8% |
| Virginia | 2001–2002 | 11.00 | 2.52% | 99.3% |
| Washington | 1999–2001 | 16.67 | 2.11% | 98.8% |
| Total | 278.98 | 36.25% | 98.9% | |
| Panel B: BLS Supplementary Data System, 1985 and 1986, Seven States | ||||
| Estimated Annual Deathsd | Percentage of Contribution to U.S. Population of These Seven States | Percentage of Epidemiological Deaths Missed by WC | ||
| Total for seven states | 262.5 | 16.44% | 97.1% | |
See Table 11 in the unpublished appendix for calculations of several states that had a category for “nature of illness not assigned.” In these cases we assumed that the same percentage of “assigned” deaths in injury and illness categories applied to “not assigned” categories, thereby explaining the figure of 17.70 for 2002 for Mississippi. This table relied on state information that reported only compensated or accepted claims for more than 95% of cases that may eventually be denied.
We used population rather than persons in labor force, since many deaths occur after age 65.
The following formula was applied: 1 minus ((A/B)/67,121), where A = Estimate of WC Deaths; and B = 1999 percentage contribution to U.S. population. The estimate assumes each individual state is representative of the United States. Clearly, each alone would not be representative, but these estimates provide a range. For the U.S. lower bound, the denominator in the formula was 46,405; for the upper bound, it was 94,024.
The 1985 estimates are in Table 1 of the unpublished appendix. Adjustments were made for increasing and decreasing deaths by disease from 1985 to 1992 to 1999.