Workers Compensation Insurance Assigned Risk Rates
I recently read a great article on the West Virginia Assigned Risk Pool in the Daily Mail. The article was very accurate on how the Assigned Risk Pool works and the increases in premium for being in the Assigned Risk Pool. The article said the rates were 25% higher than the normal Workers Compensation Insurance market. The Assigned Risk Pool begins on 1/1/09. Removing Brickstreet as the insurer of last resort should help WV’s largest workers compensation carrier.

In looking over the Assigned Risk rates for states such as Florida and North Carolina, it is obvious the Assigned Risk pool can be much more expensive than employers may realize. I had written a previous post where I compared the rates between the regular and assigned risk premiums. You may wish to use the search box to find the article. What I found previously was astounding to me.
I will revisit a good and quick example for North Carolina [7228 Long Haul Trucking]:
Rates are per $100 of payroll
- Assigned Risk Rate 19.97
- Regular Rate 11.08
- Difference 8.89
- % Difference 80%

I do realize that some insurers will increase the Regular Rate from the Advisory Loss Costs in the above example. Where else in a tax structure or business cost does it cost 80% more for basically the same supplied product? If your company is in the Assigned Risk pool, it is highly advisable to do everything to get the company out of the pool.
The first step is to find out why your company is in the pool. We have seen a few employers obtain a regular market insurance rate just by exploring the Workers Comp insurance market heavily at the time of the quote. If what you find out does not sound right to you, keep asking for an explanation.
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