I’m taking a break from data-scrubbing and catching up on my to-read pile.
Seen in National Underwriter:
New York State Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo has ordered a 20.5 percent decrease in workers’ compensation insurance rates for the fiscal year beginning Saturday.
His action was prompted by reforms in workers’ comp law earlier this year, and is estimated to save New York businesses about $1 billion in the 2007-2008 fiscal year, according to the New York State Insurance Department. [...]
In March, the governor and legislative leaders announced what was called an historic agreement designed to lower the cost of workers’ comp insurance while increasing the weekly benefits for workers. The governor projected then that the result would be a rate decline of 10-to-15 percent.
New York previously permitted lifetime permanent partial-disability payments to injured workers, but the new law caps payments at 521 weeks in all but the most severe cases. It also increases penalties for workers’ comp fraud.
Under the legislation, which Gov. Spitzer made a top priority in his new administration, injured worker benefits will increase for the first time in more than a decade. Weekly benefits will increase from a minimum of $40 to $100, and the maximum will rise from $400 to $500.
Well, I suppose this is a little better than Florida’s attempt at reducing property insurance rates by legislatively wishing away. A revision in expected future benefits is simple justification to revise rates.
One would hope that there would be some actuarial review to derive the appropriate revision, rather than the simple election of a headline-grabbing number.