Effort to Privatize Colorado Workers' Comp Insurance Fund Fails

Despite extensive lobbying, the latest attempt to privatize Pinnacol, Colorado's state-owned workers' compensation insurer, failed to gain legislative approval.

2012-07-21

July 21, 2012 (Press-News.org) Effort to Privatize Colorado Workers' Comp Insurance Fund Fails

From Denver to Grand Junction, Colorado's workforce depends on a healthy and responsive workers' compensation insurance system to assist people with the financial difficulties caused by a work injury or fatal employment-related accident. When a worker has suffered a permanent partial disability in a work-related accident or has developed a chronic repetitive stress injury, the added anxiety of lost earnings and medical expenses requires a rapid solution.

Nearly a century ago, lawmakers passed the Colorado Workers' Compensation Act to require employers to pay for medical care and income replacement after a worker is injured. Much more recently, the Colorado General Assembly established Pinnacol Assurance as the state-affiliated assured source of workers' comp insurance, and it now provides coverage to more than 50,000 Colorado companies.

Pinnacol's CEO and board chairman recently proposed that the insurer should be privatized, an effort that was supported by Gov. John Hickenlooper. The Pinnacol Assurance Stakeholders Task Force, a group of stakeholders from the business community, organized labor and nonprofit ventures, scrutinized the proposal that the state's stake in the company be reduced to 44 percent.

Opponents to privatization of the quasi-governmental workers' compensation fund pointed out that costs to businesses would increase significantly if the company was privatized, particularly for companies with high-risk operations that currently cannot obtain insurance from private carriers. Estimates of those rate increases went as high as 20 percent.

Advocates maintained that the proposal would allow Pinnacol to offer property and casualty lines of insurance to businesses in the future, and would transfer a large share of ownership to policyholders. Gov. Hickenlooper claimed the support of most of Pinnacol's larger policyholders.

Despite extensive lobbying by Pinnacol, the issue failed to gain traction in the legislature. The chairman of the Workers' Compensation Coalition called the effort -- the third attempt at privatization in the last seven years -- both "desperate" and "harmful."

Helping Injured Workers Assert Their Rights

In the aftermath of any work-related injury, prompt medical treatment and ongoing health assessment is the most important task. But workers who are concerned about the long-term implications of a back injury, shoulder problems, neck pain and other symptoms may need to exhaust their legal options to get proper compensation in addition to health care.

A consultation with a Colorado workers' comp attorney can clarify questions about properly filing a claim, pursuing an administrative appeal or exploring other legal remedies such as third-party injury lawsuits against an at fault party who is not the employer.

Article provided by Killian & Davis, P.C.
Visit us at www.killianlaw.com

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