Workers’ Comp Costs Falling in California After Reforms
Payments for workers' compensation claims in California dropped 12.2% in 2005 but increased 1.7% nationwide, according to a new report from the National Academy of Social Insurance, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Ishita Sengupta, who co-authored the report, said California represented about 13% of the nation's payroll in 2005 but accounted for about one-fifth of the nation's workers' compensation payments, even after the decline.
Frank Neuhauser, research professor at UC-Berkeley, said workers' compensation costs in California likely will continue to fall without further reforms because the data in the report only began to highlight the savings of state reforms in 2003 and 2004.
Meanwhile, other experts say California's reforms reduced workers' compensation payments by too much (Abate, San Francisco Chronicle, 8/22).