Charleston job injury attorneys would like to report that the Workers’ Compensation insurance rates in South Carolina for employers are on the decline and will likely continue to decline over the next several years. South Carolina job accident insurance is required for any employer that has four or more employees. This insurance is vital to help protect those that are seriously hurt at work and their families. These benefits pay workers two-thirds of their average weekly wage each week so that they can meet their financial obligations when recovering from an injury and being out of work. Employees are also entitled to having one-hundred percent of their medical treatment paid for under the Act.
According to the Winton Salem Journal, in our sister state, North Carolina, for 2010 the insurance industry is calling for a rate increase. Their insurance department is reporting that the state’s organization that represents companies writing workers’ compensation insurance in the state is requesting the rate hike which includes a over a one percent increase for administration costs and five and one-half percent for their assigned risk pools. This follows 2009 where the Dept. of Insurance Commissioner oversaw a over a nine and a half decrease to the loss costs area and a no increase in the markets addressing assigned risk. This saved busniess in the state over one-hundred million dollars.
Insurance companies have long been requesting rate hikes in almost all states and blaming the injured workers, attorneys and doctors’ expenses as some of the reasons for their demanded increases. In many states claims are at record lows, payouts on claims are much less than they used to be, and the amounts doctors are allowed to charge for their services have been limited and in some instances cut. In this writers opinion, politicians need to stop listening to these excuses and should undertake a serious audit of the insurance industry to determine why they keep asking for increases and to determine how much profit insurance companies made in past years when they have cried fowl and asked for rate increases with unsupported claims for the need for same. Experienced South Carolina attorneys and the public want to know the answer to this question.
Source: Winston Salem Journal – “Workers compnesation rate increase proposed.” September 13, 2010.
