Who really pays the cost of worker injuries?
A recent OSHA report "adding Inequality to Injury: The Costs of Failing to Protect Workers on the Job," notes a high percentage of work place injury costs are shouldered by the injured worker and their family and tax payer programs like social security disability. This report also notes that many injured workers do not apply for workers compensation benefits for a number of reasons including job insecurity, fear of employer retaliation, or because they do not know they are entitled to workers compensation benefits.
The read more about this, here is the OSHA report: http://www.dol.gov/osha/report/20150304-inequality.pdf