The Insurance Journal reports that Congressmen speaking at the WCRI annual conference in Boston predicted that the workers’ compensation system could end up feeling some pain if changes to health care and other social insurance programs by Congress and the Trump Administration mean some Americans lose benefits.

Former U.S. Representative Harry Waxman, Democrat of California, one of the framers of the ACA, told the roomful of workers’ compensation experts that divisions among Republicans are likely to get in the way of an effective compromise on health care.

Former U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, told the same group that while he believes Congress will pass something, whatever bill passes probably won’t attack the real problems plaguing the health care system.

In the area of health care, Coburn predicted Congress will pass a bill similar to what is known as the Burr-Hatch-Upton proposal. This 2015 Republican bill, also known as the CARE Act, keeps popular ACA features including pre-existing condition protections while eliminating the individual mandate, allowing individuals and small business employees to use tax credits to purchase insurance, capping Medicaid funds to states, and reforming medical malpractice laws.

WCRI CEO John Ruser asked if claims will shift to workers’ compensation and social insurance programs if more people end up being uninsured because of changes to the ACA or other programs.

“I have no doubt about it. I think that’s going to be the result,” said Waxman.

Coburn said he has more faith in giving people the “freedom to buy what they want” and believes states can and will do more with less for those who need Medicaid.

The two agreed that the workers’ compensation industry probably doesn’t have to worry about the federal government getting involved in its business anytime soon.

“It will be difficult to get to that issue. I don’t see that happening,” said Waxman, suggesting Congress has many other issues on its plate.

He was responding to a question on whether Congress would follow up on a report from the Obama Administration’s Department of Labor that questioned whether states are upholding the original “grand bargain” of workers’ compensation of providing injured workers fair benefits in exchange for them giving up their right to sue their employers for their injuries.

“I don’t think anything will happen on that,” agreed Coburn, adding that he doesn’t think Congress should be telling states what to do on workers’ compensation anyway.

Coburn also told the workers’ compensation specialists to expect to benefit from changes coming in medicine over the next two decades in areas of “personalized precision medicine” and “cures for chronic problems.” He predicted that “at first it’s going to cost a lot but the outcomes especially in terms of workman’s comp” will be great “in ways we can’t imagine.”