Friday, September 5, 2014
By World’s Editorial Writers | Posted: Friday, Sept. 5, 2014
Another year, another reduction in workers’ compensation costs.
On Tuesday, the National Council on Compensation Insurance filed the key report used by insurance companies in setting workers’ comp rates in the state. The report shows an overall cost level decrease of 7.8 percent for next year.
Last year’s report had a 14.6 percent cost decline.
This is good news for Oklahoma businesses, and a further sign that the state’s workers’ compensation reform effort is paying off exactly as planned.
The State Chamber of Oklahoma estimates that since workers’ comp reform was passed in the state, Oklahoma businesses have saved more than $220 million. That’s money that employers can use to expand, hire more people, offer productive employees raises and keep as profit. It’s also the sort of economic indicator that potential employers will look at when they are considering where to take their businesses.
The Workers’ Compensation Commission — the state agency charged with implementing the move from a high-priced legalistic system to an efficient administrative one — has been troubled by some well-deserved public scrutiny because of the way it mishandled public meetings during its early days.
But those missteps don’t diminish our enthusiasm for the cause of workers’ compensation reform because they don’t make the underlying principles any less true.
Gov. Mary Fallin and the Oklahoma Legislature ended years of talk about fixing workers’ compensation and did something about it. And now the employers and employees of the state are seeing the positive results.
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