SCIF’s Monday announcement that it will not be increasing its comp rates at this time puts added focus and pressure on Steve Poizner.
The State Compensation Insurance Fund announcement follows rate filings by a number of insurers (including Chubb) who plan to reduce comp insurance rates even further.
The Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau has called for a 5.2% average rate increase.
Take your pick. Increase or decrease.
Within the next couple of days Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner will issue a recommendation on the “pure premium rate” for California workers’ comp insurance. Poizner’s findings aren’t binding on insurers, but they do set the tone. The Commissioner’s findings often are cited by the business press as a sign of the system’s health.
Poizner, a near-certain 2010 candidate for governor, would be sending a strange signal if he recommends rate increases at a time that the state’s largest insurer (SCIF) has recommended holding the line.
And that’s without even considering that the system now delivers a pitiful percentage of premiums to disabled worker benefits.
For more information on all of this, see my blog posts:
“WCIRB Recommends Rate Hike”
http://www.workerscompzone.com/index.ph … 024-095337
“California Workers’ Compensation Fixed So That Insurer Profits Are
Greater Than Benefits Paid To Workers”
http://www.workerscompzone.com/index.ph … 518-115548
Stay tuned. I’ll be posting on the Poizner announcement.
Julius Young
http://www.workerscompzone.com/index.ph … 518-115548
Category: Political developments
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