House Bill 554

2016 Freedom Index Score (-1)

Analyst: Lindsay Russell Dexter
Date: March 7, 2016
ANALYSTS NOTE: The Idaho Industrial Commission (ICC) is the workers
compensation regulatory body. The ICC regulates all activities, settles disputes
between workers and insurers, and provides compensation to innocent victims of
crime. Idaho Code 72-102 provides provisions for occupational diseases. Under
current law, specific professions are not cited, but current law includes a list of
diseases that are covered under workers compensation. House Bill 554 would
specifically add professional and volunteer firefighters and 11 new diseases, which
fall specifically under firefighter compensation, to Idaho statute.
Point No. 9: Does it violate the principle of equal protection under the law?
Examples include laws which discriminate or differentiate based on age, gender, or
religion or which apply laws, regulations, rules, or penalties differently based on
such characteristics. Conversely, does it restore or protect the principle of equal
protection under the law?
ANALYSIS: The fiscal note that accompanies House Bill 554 states, The
National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) "expects that the
enactment of such presumptions will result in increases in workers
compensation; however the extent of such increases is difficult to estimate
due to significant data limitations, which include the scope of data reported to
NCCI and the conflicting results of published studies on occupational disease
and firefighters." House Bill 554 specifically cites professional and volunteer
firefighters but no other professions. Additionally, it includes 11 occupational
diseases that studies show have conflicting conclusions as to whether or not
the diseases are work-related. This bill clearly violates equal protections and
will provide special compensation perks to firefighters. (-1)