About me
Today, premiums for workers’ compensation insurance are 25% lower than they were 10 years ago. As state government struggles to administer its portfolio of social insurance programs, the surprising bipartisan success story of Minnesota’s workers’ compensation program, after decades of controversy, may serve as a useful guide. Those with long memories will recall Minnesota’s epic workers’ compensation legislative battles, precipitated by annual double-digit premium rate increases. In 1977 insurers proposed a whopping 67.5% premium increase. From the late 1970s through the early 1990s the cost of workers’ compensation insurance was a pre-eminent pain point for employers. At the State Capitol, legislators struggled to find a politically viable remedy. As a young House staffer at the time, I witnessed an endless parade of business groups pleading for relief. When I moved to an in-house legal practice representing Minnesota’s then largest insurer at the capitol, I had a front-row seat as organized-labor and business were at each other’s throats during the early ’90s. After more than a decade of often bitter debate, in 1992 and 1995 the Minnesota Legislature enacted bipartisan comprehensive reform. While the legislation resulted from a bare-knuckle process, its substance was carefully thought out. A number of studies had been commissioned from disinterested groups, including the Legislative Auditor and Citizens League, which effectively diagnosed system failures and built consensus for the ultimate enactment.
