Workers’ Comp Reform Doesn’t Help Employers

Re “Insurer’s Rate Cut Far Short of Target,” Dec. 3: My company is a small ceramics manufacturing firm here in California. We renewed our workers’ comp policy on Oct. 27 for 64% more than last year, not the 27.5% mentioned in your article. I was forced to take $17,865 out of my personal retirement account just to meet the deposit demanded for renewal. Over the past three years my company has been forced to downsize from 180 people to 70 because of a severe downturn in sales. Part of this is due to the fact that I have had to increase prices six times in three years to try to meet our escalating workers’ comp premiums. These costs have gone from $28,000 to $141,000 -- with no claims!

Workers’ comp “reforms” have resulted in windfall profits for insurance companies but no relief for employers. My company is a family business started by my parents in 1945. We have paid millions of dollars in wages and hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. I am outraged by the corruption of the workers’ comp system and the attitude of the state Legislature toward employers. It seems to believe that the doctors, lawyers and insurance companies who benefit from this $30-billion extortion are entitled to rob my company and every other business in the state with impunity.

The statistics showing that California employers pay two to three times more than the rest of the country and give legitimately injured workers the worst benefits in the nation speak for themselves.

Susan Renaker Nikas

San Dimas