NFIB applauds state insurance commissioner’s approval of 7 percent cut in cost
Come the New Year, Idaho employers should start seeing a 7 percent reduction in the workers’ compensation rates they pay, the state’s insurance commissioner recently announced.
“The Department is pleased to announce a significant decrease this year,” said Director Dean Cameron in a news release. “This will benefit not only Idaho businesses and their employees, but also the economy in general.”
According to the news release, “Employers purchase workers’ compensation insurance, which is designed to cover their employee’s medical costs associated with any workplace injuries. It also provides wage replacement benefits to injured workers for lost work time. In exchange, employers are protected from litigation should an employee be hurt on the job. NCCI [the National Council on Compensation Insurance] annually collects information about the workers’ compensation system and submits proposed rates to the Department of Insurance for review and approval.]
“Anytime you can lower a cost of doing business, it helps profitability which helps job growth and retention,” said Suzanne Budge, NFIB Idaho state director. “This is very good news from the department but more needs to be done. There is no reason our rates still have to be higher than neighboring Nevada, Oregon, and Utah.”
In a news story by the Idaho Press, it quoted Cameron as saying, “’There’s no question we had less people working and less claims being submitted,”’ during the coronavirus shutdown. A small factor in the decrease, Cameron said, was legislation that passed unanimously this year to update state laws regarding insurance codes. HB 78 included eliminating an outdated provision that set both minimum and maximum rates for workers compensation insurance rates, which was providing something of a perverse incentive for carriers to just charge the maximum.”
Of the 75 issues NFIB ranks in its quadrennial Small Business Problems & Priorities report, the cost of workers’ compensation came in at 22.
