Cost of Insurance for Work Injuries Soars Across U.S.

New York Times ^ | 6/23/03 | JOSEPH B. TREASTER

[Mamzelle]

SACRAMENTO, June 19 — Across the country, the cost of workers' compensation insurance is soaring at the highest rate in nearly a decade, adding yet another heavy burden on businesses and the struggling national economy.

The governors of Florida, West Virginia and Washington have called special sessions of their Legislatures this year to find ways to contain costs, and elsewhere, thousands of bills on workers' compensation have been introduced. Advertisement

The system covers 127 million workers nationally but is regulated state by state, with no federal oversight. Unlike with Medicare and Medicaid, Congress has no role in the regulation of workers' compensation.

Nationwide, the average cost of workers' compensation insurance has risen 50 percent in the last three years, according to Robert P. Hartwig, the chief economist at the Insurance Information Institute, a trade group in New York.

But nowhere in the country have prices been rising faster and with more debilitating impact than here in California. The average cost of workers' compensation insurance here has nearly doubled over the past three years, said David Bellusci, the chief actuary of the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau in San Francisco, another insurer-backed organization.

As a result, dozens of businesses in California — big and small — have laid off workers, according to state officials and business leaders. Some businesses have closed and a few have moved to other states where insurance costs have not risen as much.

[Mamzelle]

Runaway insurance premiums aren't just for hospitals and doctors. Link to complete NYT article

[balrog666]

They already solved this a couple times in Florida.

They just moved more jobs into higher risk categories to spread the load for all the corruption. Of course, there's only so many times you can do that before even the easiest job in the world is ranked (and assessed) with the the worst.