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.
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