Officials Discuss Privatizing Okla. Workers' Comp

TIM TALLEY

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Nevada's workers' compensation insurance rates have dropped since that state privatized the agency providing such insurance, Nevada executives told an Oklahoma legislative task force Wednesday.

The task force is considering privatizing Oklahoma's workers' compensation agency, CompSource Oklahoma.

Nevada opened up it workers' compensation insurance market 10 years ago when it transformed the agency from a monopoly to a mutual insurance agency owned by its policyholders, said Douglas Dirks, president and chief executive of Employers Holdings, Inc.

"Rates have gone down fairly consistently since the market was opened," Dirks said.

The Oklahoma Legislature created Compsource — formerly known as the State Insurance Fund — in 1933 as the state's workers' compensation insurer of last resort, issuing policies to employers that private insurers will not accept.

State law requires all employers to have insurance to compensate injured workers. But some state lawmakers believe Oklahoma should not be in the business of writing workers' compensation insurance and that a state agency like CompSource should not compete with private insurers.