CA: Insurers get shock on workers' comp

SAN JOSE -- State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi shocked insurers and business leaders Thursday by recommending workers' compensation insurance rates be slashed by an average of 14.9 percent, nearly triple the number proposed by a key advisory group.

"The cost of workers' compensation insurance to every employer in the state of California should decline to the July 2002 level, eliminating the increases that have plagued business," Garamendi said.

State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi shocked insurers and business leaders Thursday by recommending workers' compensation insurance rates be slashed by an average of 14.9 percent, nearly triple the number proposed by a key advisory group.

Insurance commissioners are such crooks. They regulate, regulate, regulate, make it difficult to do business in the state, and demand rates below what the market will bear.

And the sheep buy it hook, line, and sinker (holy mixed metaphor!) and say, "insurance companies bad, commissioner fighting for me!"

Workmen's comp is a racket, driven by the lawyers.

When I lived in California, I took a women's studies course that required each student to give a short talk about their own personal career plans. One student stood up and described how she was going to work for her father's workmen's comp office, where he had a team of paralegals who filled out the forms for the clients and doctors who gave the exams and qualified the clients to recieve benefits. She said that it was a very skilled job, knowing just how to fill out the forms and what to say to get the worker the most money. The key was to have the lawyer's (her father) doctors do the exam. The girl had no idea what she was saying, the teacher just got wide-eyed with disbelief, but said nothing.

They did that here in Washington during the '90's forcing the State to enact a Hillarycare style system because private insurers fled. Now the Washington Basic Health system is broker than broke and the former Insurance Commissioner who caused this mess is flirting with running for Governor in 04. She would be the darling of the dims if it were not for the fact that another totaly incompetent candidate is in possession of that title, State Attorney General Christine Gregoire. She'll probably win the dim nomination. And the office too, unfortunately. She's a symbol of what happens when you worship at the altar of social promotion.

"State Fund, the largest workers' compensation carrier in the state with more than half of the market, plans to file its 2004 rate plan with the Department of Insurance at the end of November.

And with the forced rate cut it looks like they'll make up the other half too. For anyone who doesn't know comp, the State Fund is the socialist state insurance company. They are atrocious to deal with and incredibly stoopid and incompetent.

I have an idea for California. Allow the market to work.

For anyone who doesn't know comp, the State Fund is the socialist state insurance company. They are atrocious to deal with and incredibly stoopid and incompetent.

AMEN- A client I have now (bookkeeping) has a running battle with them at the moment. A substitute bookkeeper who filled in for me when I was out of the state for 9 weeks paid the W/C bill at the wrong classification, and hence overpaid by about $525.00. I have spent 2 years trying to get the money back for my client. No luck so far. I plan on deducting it from the next payment.

ALSO- another friend got an increase in his office staff
W/C rates. The increase amounted to about 420 %. That is NOT a typo. Similar increases have occurred state wide.
Now Garamendi is announcing that he will give a 14.9% decrease?
Do the math: Increase of 420%, decrease of 14.9%. Still puts a small business in danger of going out of business.

I have watched W/C problems build in this state for 39 years. In the past, insurers wouldn't check into the fraud they were paying for. They said it would cost them too much to pay for the court cases involved. They also intimated that it would look bad for them to be picking on persons who were injured working.

I know of at least 2 cases where the persons who collected benefits WERE NOT injured on the job. One business owner screamed for assistance from his insurer's claims department, and they wouldn't even take his calls after awhile. HIs employee was fine at the job site on Fri afternoon. Employee went water skiing for 3 day weekend. Came in Tuesday and claimed work-related injury to his back. No matter what the boss did in trying to talk to insurer, he couldn't get them to listen to them.

Current business owners are reaping the rewards of this behavior on the part of the insurers.

The story says over 200 insurers are writing coverage in Calif, but I don't think that is correct. Companies are dropping insurance coverage for W/C left and right.

A lady that rides with me has just had the W/C double+ at her job. She is the only employee- clerical- nothing at all has changed at the job location or duties in over 5 years. Never any claims. The insurer wouldn't even try to give her a decent answer. They shopped the policy, and found that no one wanted to cover her. One employee- works in an office setting- at a private home/residence. Piracy, IMO.

I wonder if Davis raided the bank accounts of the state W/C fund like he did so many others? Hope Arnold's auditor finds some of this perversion.

"I plan on deducting it from the next payment."

Nice idea, but they'll cancel the policy right out from under you. If you have a record of what you were trying to collect you could take them to small claims court. It would waste your time, but you could get your money back.

The story says over 200 insurers are writing coverage in Calif, but I don't think that is correct.

This includes the big multinationals that will insure Fortune 500 co.'s CA locations. Small businesses probably have access to no more than two dozen insurers.

Crooks at the helm of our wildly careening ship of state.

Thanks for your question. I am going to post a link to a pdf file that is from Tom McClintock's campaign website.

The link is titled Senate Republican Report on the Worker's Compensation Crisis.

I am not going to cut and paste anything here, but recommend it as document worth reviewing for both background info on the CA Worker's Comp system and recently passed legislation (AB749).

The pdf, April 14,2003 is from the Senate Republican Office of Policy and is titled

Briefing Report
Workers’ Compensation— Comprehensive Reform Needed, not a Band-Aid

Thanks. I read it. What crap. No answers there. Just band aids.

It is obvious that the heart of the matter is a medical plan that duplicates existing private services and requires very little from the employee.

It seems to me that if employees bore most of the cost of the system, the system would collapse, as it should.

My vote is to eliminate workers comp or provide medical services well below the current state of the art. If you want more you pay more.

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