ACIC Examines Workers’ Comp Issues

While the California Legislature continues to debate the issue of workers’ compensation reform, The Association of California Insurance Companies (ACIC) has developed an issues paper that addresses the major arguments in the current reform scenario.

“While everyone seems to agree that reform is essential, some point to insurers as the culprits behind the current turmoil in the workers’ compensation marketplace,” said ACIC President Sam Sorich. “We’ve developed this issues paper to set the record straight. Insurers are victims of the current broken system, just as employers and injured workers are its victims.”

The issues paper addresses the following facts:

* Losses for workers’ comp insurers are outpacing premiums;

* The rate of return for workers’ comp insurers has steadily declined over the past five years;

* Insurers’ poor rates of return are not due in large part to bad investments in the stock market;

* Insurance companies continue to leave the California market;

* Increased regulation of insurers will not lead to lower rates for workers’ comp insurance;

The Association of California Insurance Companies (ACIC) is an affiliate of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (www.pciaa.net) and represents more than 300 property/casualty insurance companies doing business in California. In California, ACIC member companies write 43 percent of the private workers’ comp insurance.