Competitive State Funds Still Exist Across The US – Updated 2019
Facilities that are state owned and operated that directly compete with commercial carriers. The competitive state funds usually only write Workers’ Comp policies that are intrastate (inside their own borders). Not all states participate in this type of fund.
The states with this type of fund are Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Utah.
West Virginia had used Brickstreet as a competitive state fund until recently. SCIF (California) is the largest of the competitive state funds. SCIF consistently ranks as one of the largest worker’s comp carriers in the US.
The last ranking provided by Best’s Insurance rating has them ranked at 6th. The rankings compare SCIF to all premiums written nationally. SCIF’s size ranks with Travelers, Hartford, and the other major players even though they provide insurance for just one state.
Update – CompSource Oklahoma changed to a commercial carrier in 2016.
Many people mistake ARAP or Assigned Risk Programs with competitive state funds. In most instances, they function as totally separate programs.
I mistakenly identified Montana as a monopolistic state. In fact, Montana has a competitive state fund. Due to market forces many of these states will likely privatize them such as in the case of Oklahoma Compsource and West Virginia’s Brickstreet. Brickstreet and Compsource have experienced a measure of success after privatizing their operations.
The markets now consider Brickstreet as a carrier that provides voluntary marketplace policies in many states. Brickstreet moved into the North Carolina market very rapidly over the last few years with a few marketing blitzes.
Some prognosticators identify these funds as having an unfair advantage due to the state or taxpayer dollars backing these funds regardless of operating losses.
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