Poizner denies application to increase workers’ comp cost benchmark
Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced via teleconference this morning that his office has denied a petition by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau for a 23.7% increase in the Workers’ Compensation Cost Benchmark.
In response to the request, Poizner convened a cost efficiency hearing, from which he determined that “the amount of efficiencies left to be implemented by insurers is substantial.” Poizner pointed to bodies such as the University of California, which provides its own workers’ compensation insurance, as examples of insurers who have seen costs decline by implementing such efficiencies.
“You all need to focus on making the workers’ comp system much more cost efficient,” said Poizner, who vowed to not include any avoidable costs in the benchmark.
Divide and Conquer Tax Strategy
A poll was distributed yesterday that indicated voters would support a tax on cigarettes. The American Lung Association, American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, three organizations that want to cut down on the number of smokers, commissioned the poll. So, it’s hard to understand the poll’s conclusion: “At a time when the state of California faces an unprecedented budget crisis, a tobacco tax increase receives overwhelming public support as part of a potential solution.”
A tax on cigarettes is intended to partially solve the budget crisis? Is that the goal of these reputable organizations? Using a tax on cigarettes to help solve the budget crisis seems highly unlikely, since a cigarette tax is a notoriously unreliable source of revenue. The higher taxes often cause smokers to search out ways to avoid the heavy tax. Purchasing them over the Internet, crossing state lines to acquire smokes, or even getting smuggled cigarettes.
One Opportunity for the State Legislature to Shine
Even if the state Legislature cannot agree on a budget, it can still pass a single bill that would save 65,000 jobs in Southern California and create many more. SB 696 would overturn a moratorium on required permits issued by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and is the key to unfreezing more than 1,100 building and construction projects in the region. Business, labor and municipalities are united in support — now we need to fast-track SB 696 to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk.
Under Southern California’s strict air quality rules, businesses and governments adding new equipment must prove a reduction in air pollution. The SCAQMD maintains a special reserve fund of offset credits for projects that are considered an essential public service, research program or innovative technology.
Unfortunately, a lawsuit by an environmental group eliminated that credit bank, halting a wide-range of projects in the region by businesses and governments like the Whittier Police Department, the Long Beach Airport, St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica and many others. Now, providers of essential services, small businesses and others will have to pay up to $4 billion to obtain emission reduction credits — if they are available at all.
Stop the Prop. 65 Shakedown – Part II
In our continuing series of what a racket Proposition 65 has created, I thought I would focus in one individual “private attorney” that seems to have carved out a very nice practice for himself. Interestingly, if you google Anthony Held Ph.d, the only reference you can find is that on the website Prop65ClearingHouse.com/. I will talk about that a little later.
The state law requires any person suing “in the public interest” to enforce Proposition 65, “The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986,” to notify the Attorney General of the lawsuit and the outcome of the case. Each year, the Attorney General posts the annual listings of settlements. In an earlier blog I put a few examples of this utter shakedown process and showed the outrageous fees these scam artists are getting for supposedly protecting the public.
Dr. Held caught my eye because he seems to really have a ferocity for filing suits against businesses. Just in 2008, Dr. Held had a total of 31 settlements with judgments totaling $1,173,250. His “attorney fees” were $901,150. The civil penalties against the 31 entities totaled $272,100.
The Health Care Debate: Witness The “NIMBY” Effect In Action
This article was co-authored by Alex Bratty.
If you’ve been following the ins-and-outs of the health care debate and reading some of the recent articles regarding public attitudes towards the proposal for a public plan you might be a little confused about what it is people really want. And rightly so, for there are many numbers floating around out there and some fail to capture the complexity of the issue.
In our recent NBC/WSJ poll* we asked a series of questions on the issue of health care, specifically designed to cover the various angles of the debate.
Sure, when asked the importance of having the choice of both a public plan and a private plan for their health insurance three-quarters (76%) of Americans say this is “extremely” or “quite important.” But, pause for a moment and ask yourself this question: Is this a surprising answer for a country that prides itself on wanting more choices? Of course not. Whether it’s health care or some other issue, in general, Americans favor choice every time.