VT. WORKERS’ COMP RATES MODERATE

Vermont workers’ compensation rates are moderating for the third year in a row, Commissioner John P. Crowley of the Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration announced.

Crowley approved a loss cost increase of 1.4 percent for the voluntary market and a rate decrease of 2.6 percent in the assigned risk market, effective April 1, 2006.

Big drop
The 2006 rate changes are a significant drop from the double-digit figures of the recent past, which stemmed from a hard insurance market affecting all lines of property and casualty insurance, both in Vermont and across the country, Crowley noted.

A further sign that the market is stabilizing is the fact that, after years of increases, the number of employers in the assigned risk market decreased by 24 percent in 2005.