Ohio Competitive Workers Compensation Task Force Meeting

This PowerPoint presentation and accompanying report, presented by Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, before the Ohio Competitive Workers Compensation Task Force, provides an overview of the history and current state of the workers compensation insurance market, with a focus on Ohio. The presentation discusses the rationale for government monopoly of workers comp programs, such as exists in Ohio, and a critique of that role as well as the advantages that competition could bring to the market. The presentation examines the social, economic and political forces that shaped Ohio’s original workers compensation laws a century ago and continue to influence the structure of the state’s workers compensation system today. A timeline of workers comp developments in Ohio and nationwide is offered. Other sections deal with the workers compensation operating environment, including size, growth, competition, underwriting performance, residual markets and employer cost; the importance of free, open and fair competition for workers comp insurers of all size should Ohio open its market to competition; and workplace safety.