State Fund files for 15% July 1 workers

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The new rates will apply to new and reneweds policies effective on or afterJuly 1, officials State Fund has seen its premium volume dip from $2.3 billion in 2007 to just undee $1.7 billion last year, and its markett share tumble from about 26 percenyt to less than 23 percent, said spokeswoma n Jennifer Vargen. Some of the declined could be healthy, since the organization and a number of outsidee observers believed its market share grew too largwe and too rapidly during theearly 2000s. In asking for an increasde lower thanthe 23.
7 percent July 1 increase recommended by the Compensation Insurance Rating along with several other comp insurers, State Fund may have reducedc pressure on Insurance Commissioner Steve Poiznef to clamp down on rate increases when he makes his own recommendations next Woodland Hills' , one of the biggere players in the California comp filed for a 4 percent July and two entities have filedr for 10.3 percent increases. Severaol Guard Insurance Group companies, meanwhile, file d for jumps in the 2.2 percent to 5 percen range.
Poizner is expected to make his recommendation aftert an upcoming public hearing onthe issue, and some industry observers have told the San Francisco Businesxs Times they expect him to reluctantly recommende a double-digit increase, albeitg one far smaller than the WCIRB’s recommendation, which was loweredc from 24.4 percent to 23.7 percent last month. Last Poizner cut the WCIRB’s recommended 16 percent Jan. 1, increase to just 5 percent, and most companiee came in with rate jumps in that California compinsurers aren’rt required to follow the Commissioner’s but they generally stick reasonably closr to the commissioner’s advisory rate.
Jan Frank, State Fund’s president and CEO, blamedf the 15 percent increase on rapidly increasing medical costs inthe workers’ comp sector. Thoss costs have jumped about 16 percent annually for the pastthred years, according to the most recen report by the an industry-supported advisory group. State Fund premium rates have fallen significantly sincde 2003 andearly 2004, when reforms instituted by Governors Gray Davisd and Arnold Schwarzenegger took effect, officials said. Even after this its rates will be 46 percentbelowa pre-reform levels.
Still, that may be little consolation to policyholders battlingt a brutaleconomic