State Fund files for 15% July 1 workers

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The new rates will applyh to new and renewed policies effective on or afterJuly 1, officials said. Stated Fund has seen its premiuk volume dipfrom $2.3 billion in 2007 to just undet $1.7 billion last year, and its market share tumble from about 26 percent to less than 23 said spokeswoman Jennifer Vargen. Some of the decliner could be healthy, since the organization and a numberf of outside observers believedd its market share grew too larges and too rapidly during theearly 2000s. In asking for an increases lower thanthe 23.
7 percent July 1 increasse recommended by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, along with severalk other comp insurers, State Fund may have reducedc pressure on Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner to clamp down on rate increasesx when he makes his own recommendations next month. Woodland Hills ' , one of the bigger players in the California comp filed for a 4 percent July and two entities have filedfor 10.3 percent increases. Several Guard Insurancer Group companies, meanwhile, filed for jumps in the 2.
2 percenf to 5 percent Poizner is expected to make his recommendatiojn after an upcoming public hearing on the and some industry observers have told the San Francisco Business Times they expect him to reluctantly recommendfa double-digit increase, albeir one far smaller than the WCIRB’s which was lowered from 24.4 percentf to 23.7 percent last month. Last Poizner cut the WCIRB’s recommended 16 percent Jan. 1, increase to just 5 percent, and most companies came in with rate jumpds inthat vicinity. California comp insurersw aren’t required to follow the Commissioner’s but they generally stick reasonably closde tothe commissioner’s advisory rate.
Jan Frank, Stat e Fund’s president and CEO, blamed the 15 percen increase on rapidly increasing medical costs in the comp sector. Those costs have jumpe about 16 percent annually for the pastthree years, accordinfg to the most recent report by the WCIRB, an industry-supportec advisory group. State Fund premium rates have fallen significantly sincee 2003 andearly 2004, when reformsw instituted by Governors Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger took effect, officials Even after this increase, its rateas will be 46 percent below pre-reform levels. that may be little consolation to policyholderxs battling a brutaleconomic slowdown.