"Due to the foresight of the Florida Legislature, these reforms have revitalized the market and increased competition," said Commissioner McCarty. "The resulting rate reductions have made the State of Florida a more attractive business environment."

The report's analysis shows Florida's workers' comp market is competitive with those in the five other most populous states: California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Based on workers' comp written premium, in the six big states, California is first with $14.6 billion, followed by New York ($3.8 billion), Florida ($3.7 billion), Texas ($2.7 billion), Illinois ($2.5 billion) and Pennsylvania ($2.2 billion).

Comparing states using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index--a calculation constructed to determine market concentration--the state ranked highest is the most concentrated, and conversely, least competitive, all else being equal.

Measuring the six populous states on this basis, New York was ranked first, followed by California, Texas, Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

The report noted some continuing problems of availability for some segments of the Florida business community--most notably small firms, new firms and construction companies.

It also found a decrease in the number of policies written by the Florida Workers' Compensation Joint Underwriting Association. The report concludes the decline in residual market policies is also an indication of a healthy marketplace.

According to the report, Florida's workers' comp insurance market contained a large number of independent carriers--none of which had enough marketshare to individually exercise control in an uncompetitive nature.

Using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, the researchers said the indication is that Florida's market is not overly concentrated, and consequently exhibited a reasonable degree of competition.

There were no significant barriers for entry and exit of insurers into and out of the Florida workers' comp insurance market, the report said

Concerning the residual market, it said that sector is small relative to the private market, indicating that the voluntary market offers reasonable availability.

However, the report said there may be some small segments of the market that might have difficulty obtaining workers' comp insurance, including small firms and new firms.