Workers' comp premiums down

[jamesinca]

Workers' comp premiums down
Insurers call for 1 percent drop, others argue for bigger cuts following reforms

Tom Abate , , 2003

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An industry association is expected to tell state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi on Monday that workers' compensation premiums should drop 1 percent in 2004.

But other speakers at a hearing scheduled in San Francisco are likely to argue that recent legislative reforms justify even steeper cuts in an insurance system whose rates have more than doubled since 1999.

On Friday, the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, an association made up of the firms that sell this insurance, officially estimated the savings it expects will flow from two reform bills that passed the state Legislature on Sept. 12.

Under the rules that deregulated workers' comp rates in 1995, the bureau is charged with providing Garamendi with data the insurance commissioner uses to issue a premium advisory -- a benchmark rate that each insurer is free to follow or ignore in setting the premiums paid by employers.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/09/27/BUG3R1VN2B1.DTL

[jamesinca]

1. A few very telling paragraphs in the article

With workers' comp becoming an issue in California's recall, this advisory process has gotten additional scrutiny -- and is expected to have extra clout.

<SNIP>

This may help Davis. But the article goes on to say it it may be related to teh dergulation of the Pete Wilson(R) years.

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Insurers will argue that if Garamendi tries to force the industry to reduce rates too quickly in anticipation of expected savings, this will keep companies out of California -- worsening the insurance shortage that began in 1999. Since then, more than 20 insurance companies have either gone bankrupt or quit selling in California.

But labor blames that exodus on deregulation, saying insurers offered low- ball rates between 1995 and 1999, and then, as bankruptcies drained the insurance pool, started handing out double-digit premium hikes.

<SNIP>

There is that evil deregulation word again!!

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Barry Broad, a labor representative at Friday's bureau meeting, made a reference to deregulation in urging insurers to pass on any savings to employers. "If it looks like a bunch of people made out like bandits there's going to be a lot of pressure'' to reconsider regulation, he said.

Lets hope they research it and I will bet that the bandits are there to be found.

[catzies]

2. I did not know Calif. workers' comp was deregulated!!!

:wow: That's a talking point I will use in rebuttal to the "what a mess we're in" arguments from my Rethug friends and coworkers the same way I pointed out that energy deregulation paved the way for Enron to rape us three years ago.

[Bandit]

3. Mine went up by over ten percent for next year

I used to pay $6175. per year This year my bill was $7250. with no claims filed ever. Sometimes you can't believe all you read.