Businesses might see lower insurance premiums, while workers hurt on the job would have a harder time collecting benefits, under a bill that could reach the S.C. House floor this week.

Tightening eligibilityfor workers compensation has been a top legislative priority this year for big business. The S.C. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups said paying the medical bills and lost wages of workers injured on the job has been a large and rising cost.The legislation is now in the House Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee. Its chairman, Rep. Harry Cato, R-Greenville, said he expects the committee this week to send the bill to the House floor for debate, once representatives finish with property tax reform.

Should the House pass the measure, it will get a cool reception from state Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell.

The Charleston Republican said he was skeptical of the need for the changes. Also, McConnell and other legislators said their first priority is property tax reform for homeowners.

“People back home get first place,” he said.

Some legislators questioned whether they had all the facts to show changes to the workers compensation system were needed.

McConnell said he wants to form a subcommittee to find out if businesses are paying too much in premiums, and if so, whether the excess is going to injured workers or to insurers. He also wants to examine the effectiveness of the S.C. Insurance Department’s oversight of insurers.

Insurance Director Eleanor Kitzman said the department has limited influence, in part because awards are determined by another agency, the S.C. Workers Compensation Commission.

“I don’t think there’s anything we could do that would lower rates 15 to 20 percent without doing serious harm to injured workers,” she said.

On Jan. 2, House leaders filed a bill that contained most of the business groups’ wish list of benefit cuts designed to reduce workers compensation premiums. The bill has 51 sponsors, including House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston.

Bill Smith, a Columbia lawyer who represents injured employees in workers compensation cases, opposes the changes, saying they gut protections for workers.

“They’re not going to get any bang for their buck from premiums if this passes, but it is an assault on the working people,” Smith said.

One provision would limit benefits for workers with severe, life-long injuries. Smith used the example of a worker who has a back injury that a doctor says limits the worker to lifting no more than 20 pounds and standing for less than one hour per day. Under current law, the worker could receive 500 weeks of paid medical care and lost-wages benefits plus lifetime medical care for the injury. Under the new rules, the worker would receive a fraction of 300 weeks and would not receive lifetime medical care for the injury.

The new rules would eliminate distinctions now made between those for whom standing and lifting are crucial to their work prospects, and those for whom those physical abilities matter little in their professions, such as lawyers like himself, Smith said.

“But for a guy who can’t read and write and has only done heavy labor all his life — that is a severe restriction for him,” Smith said.

Cato, one of the bill’s chief sponsors, said businesses should not be forced to pay more because the worker cited in Smith’s example “did not take the opportunities available” to be educated. “Unfortunately, he chose to limit his options by limiting his education.”

McConnell sees workers compensation from a different perspective.

He championed reforms last year that made it harder to file lawsuits, by arguing that the model should be the no-fault workers compensation system.

Workers compensation laws were enacted in South Carolina and other states in the 1930s as a compromise between business and labor.

“It was tort reform decades ago,” McConnell said. “I certainly don’t want to throw the workers compensation system out the window.”

Reach DuPlessis at (803) 771-8305. Staff Writer Ben Werner contributed.