Bellows bill would create parity in workers’ compensation for mental health injuries

A bill by Sen. Shenna Bellows, D-Manchester, to create parity between mental health injuries and physical injuries in workers’ compensation was the subject of a public hearing in the Legislature’s Labor and Housing Committee on Monday.

The bill, LD 600 “An Act To Achieve Mental Health Parity in Workers’ Compensation,” changes the standard of proof required to demonstrate entitlement to compensation for a mental injury caused by stress from “clear and convincing evidence” to “preponderance of evidence,” which is the same standard as is required with respect to physical injuries. Additionally, LD 600 specifies that a work related injury that aggravates a preexisting mental condition may result in a compensable disability, just as aggravating a preexisting physical condition may.

“We have come a long way as a society in reducing the stigma of mental illness,” said Sen. Bellows. “But as long as our laws continue to treat mental illness differently than physical illness, we will not fully reduce the stigma nor will we fully succeed in getting people they help they need to get well.”

Also speaking in favor of LD 600 were the Maine AFL-CIO, the Maine Education Association, an attorney who has represented injured workers, and the President of Local S-89 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, who also works as a workers’ compensation paralegal.

“Most of the concepts in workers’ compensation were created decades ago – when mental health was far less understood as a ‘true’ health issue,” said Adam Goode of the Maine AFL-CIO. “Nurses, working people at Riverview, in corrections, dispatch, firefighting and many professions now face threats from workplace injuries in the mental health category that are just as important to have protections for as the ‘physical’ work injuries … We see no justification for [the] higher burden for mental health in today’s workers’ compensation.”

LD 600 faces further action in the Labor and Housing Committee, and votes in the Maine House and Senate.