Era of Stability May be Ending, Cautions Conn. Workers’ Compensation Chief Mastropietro
The political conditions that have fostered a stable workers’ compensation market in Connecticut for the past 15 years are showing signs of erosion, the chief administrator for the state’s workers’ compensation system has warned.
“Workers’ compensation is cyclical — and we are now in the middle of where cyclical changes tend to occur,” said John A. Mastropietro.
Mastropietro, chairman of the state’s Workers Compensation Commission, suggested that revisions passed in 1993 after what he termed a “bloodbath” between business and labor were good for businesses and have led to lower, more predictable costs for employers and the system. The changes included a one-third cut in benefits.
Since then, labor has largely been frustrated in its efforts to rollback the 1993 cuts. But, Mastropietro pointed out, most of the bills to restore benefits that lawmakers have rejected have been gradually gaining support the past five years.
One bill, which repealed the offset in workers’ compensation for Social Security payments, was passed last year.
Legislators also considered extending benefits for partial permanent disabilities and the Senate passed a mandate that employers provide paid sick days.
“What was DOA (dead on arrival) in 1994 through 1996 is no longer DOA in 2008,” Mastropietro told the Independent Insurance Agents of Conn.
According to Mastropietro, of the 351 legislators who were around in 1993 for that battle, only 23 are still in office. “This is an entirely new generation with different viewpoints,” he suggested.
The rate stability for the $732 million system may be eroding as well. The industry’s National Council on Compensation Insurance has filed for an average 3.4 percent hike in voluntary market rates for next year, along with a 1.2 percent increase for the involuntary market.
Mastropietro maintained costs are up because medical costs and the state’s average weekly wage are up. “The winds are blowing,” he told agents.