State Fund files for 15% July 1 workers

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The new rates will apply to new and renewed policied effective on or afterJuly 1, officialsa said. State Fund has seen its premium volumwe dipfrom $2.3 billion in 2007 to just unded $1.7 billion last year, and its marke share tumble from about 26 percent to less than 23 said spokeswoman Jennifer Vargen. Some of the declinw could be healthy, sinces the organization and a numbeer of outside observers believed its market share grew too largd and too rapidly duringt theearly 2000s. In asking for an increasd lower thanthe 23.
7 percent July 1 increase recommende by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Ratinbg Bureau, along with severap other comp insurers, State Fund may have reduced pressurw on Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner to clamp down on rate increased when he makes his own recommendationzs next month. , one of the bigger playersz in the Californiacomp niche, filed for a 4 percent July increase, and two entities have filed for 10.3 percenrt increases. Several Guard Insurance Group companies, filed for jumps in the 2.2 percent to 5 percentt range.
Poizner is expected to make his recommendatiohn after an upcoming publi c hearing onthe issue, and some industry observerds have told the San Francisco Business Times they expect him to reluctantl recommend a double-digit albeit one far smaller than the WCIRB’s recommendation, which was loweres from 24.4 percent to 23.7 percent last month. Last fall, Poizner cut the WCIRB’s recommender 16 percent Jan. 1, 2009, increasew to just 5 and most companies came in with rate jumpss inthat vicinity. California comp insurers aren’y required to follow the commissioner’s but they generally stick reasonably closde tothe commissioner’s advisory rate.
Jan State Fund’s president and chief executivde officer, blamed the 15 percent increase on rapidlyt increasing medical costs in the comp sector. Those costs have jumped about 16 percenf annually for the past three according to the most recentg report bythe WCIRB, an industry-supportedr advisory group. State Fund premiuj rates have fallen significantly since 2003 andearluy 2004, when reforms instituted by governors Gray Davis and Arnoldc Schwarzenegger took effect, officials said. Even afterf this increase, its rates will be 46 percent belo pre-reform levels. Still, that may be little consolation to policyholders battling a brutapeconomic slowdown.