FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, October 6, 2008

Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/ 457-5546;
steve@hopcraft.com

Injured Workers’ Death Toll Mounts:
Widow Says SCIF’s “Delays And Denials Killed My Husband”
While SCIF directors skimmed millions, they issued fatal denials of care

SACRAMENTO, CA – Desiree Baker, the widow of Joe Baker an injured welder
and machinist who committed suicide in despair after fighting unsuccessfully to
get the care needed to recover from his work injuries, told a news conference
outside the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) today that “SCIF’s denials
and delays killed my husband.” Ms. Baker, from Durham, near Chico, said,
“SCIF’s delays in providing care drove my husband, Joe, to shoot himself in
despair.” Ms. Baker blamed her husband’s suicide on repeated delays and denials
in accepting Joe’s injury and authorizing needed medication, “It was SCIF’s denial
of Joe’s treatment and his pain and sleep medications that eventually drove Joe to
suicide.”

Joe Baker is at least the fourth injured worker to commit suicide since Gov.
Schwarzenegger made deep cuts in care and compensation for injured workers.
“SCIF finally accepted Joe’s injury as work-related, but by then we were so deep
in a financial hole there was no climbing out,” said Ms. Baker. “I would go to the
pharmacy in tears and come home to find Joe crying.”

Joe Baker was born in Woodland, grew up in Chico and worked for 25 years as a
welder, and also learned to be a machinist. Two decades of lifting and bending
heavy steel wore out two discs in Joe’s back. Joe was in constant pain and became
deeply depressed. It was SCIF’s denial of Joe’s treatment and his pain and sleep
medications that eventually drove Joe to suicide. We had to seek care under our
personal insurance because of SCIF constantly denying medical treatment for Joe’s
injury. That insurance required 20% co-payment for Joe’s back surgery and his
medications. That burden ultimately forced us to sell the home we had just
purchased after so many years of work. Had we not sold it, we would have lost it to
foreclosure.

Desi Baker blasted the cuts in workers’ comp benefits and the failure to provide
timely treatment, “Joe was a wonderful man, husband, father and sportsman. He
was a hard worker, and helped to raise his stepdaughter and stepson. Workers
compensation insurance was to provide medical care and support. Instead, they
denied medications and treatment, driving us into financial, physical and emotional
ruin. SCIF broke Joe’s hope and drove him to suicide.”

A State Department of Insurance audit of the State Compensation Insurance Fund
(SCIF) has revealed that Joe Baker is just one of tens of thousands of Californians
injured at work who were harmed by SCIF, rather than healed. Among other
things, the audit revealed SCIF paid nearly $20 million in penalties between
January and July 2007 for repeatedly delaying and denying appropriate care and
compensation to injured workers.

“While SCIF was delaying and denying injured workers’ medical care and
disability compensation, the insurer was awash in cash from high premiums. SCIF
takes in $3.5 billion a year from California’s small businesses, public agencies and
nonprofits that often struggle to pay those premiums. They believed their workers
would receive appropriate compensation. Nearly half the employers in the state
pay State Compensation Insurance Fund to care for and compensate employees
like Joe Baker who are injured at work,” said Sue Borg, CAAA legislative chair.

Since Governor Schwarzenegger pushed his workers compensation program
through the Legislature in 2004, insurance companies have posted record profits.
Insurer profits of $6.6 billion in 2006 were greater than the benefits paid to injured
workers ($6.2 billion). Compensation for disabled California workers has sunk to
the bottom among all the states while insurer profits have skyrocketed.

Download pdf: Release_Baker.pdf