Existing law regulates the rate that may be charged on workers’ compensation insurance and requires every workers’ compensation insurer to adhere to a uniform experience rating plan filed with the Insurance Commissioner by a rating organization designated by the commissioner and subject to his or her disapproval. Existing law requires that a rate be adequate to cover an insurer’s losses and expenses, not tend to create a monopoly, and not be unfairly discriminatory. Under existing law, rates are unfairly discriminatory if, after allowing for practical limitations, price differentials fail to reflect equitably the difference in expected losses and expenses.

This bill would provide that a rate that includes a price differential because the policyholder purchased the policy through a broker is unfairly discriminatory and shall not be approved.