The head of an insurers' trade group said today that New York Insurance Superintendent Howard Mills' decision to limit a rate hike for workers' compensation insurance to 5 percent will hurt the marketplace.
Bernard Bourdeau, president of the New York Insurance Association, said he believes that a 16 percent rate hike increase originally recommended by the state's Compensation Insurance Rating Board was needed. The board, an industry advisory panel, changed its recommendation to 5 percent following a public hearing last month.
"Eventually insurers will decide that the rates are not adequate and will decide to stop writing," said Mr. Bourdeau, who described the state's workers' comp rates as artificially suppressed.
The 5 percent hike in the average workers' comp rate paid by employers is effective Oct. 1.
Mr. Bourdeau said an inadequate rate situation hurts everyone involved as more businesses will seek coverage from the state insurance fund and reduce healthy competition among insurers.
He made comments last month suggesting that New York is headed for a California-style workers' comp insurance meltdown with rate increases exceeding 40 percent if such conditions persist.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
