Reserve Deficiencies Critical, NCCI Poll Finds

Reserve Deficiencies Critical, NCCI Poll Finds

By Daniel Hays

NU Online News Service, May 9, 1:40 p.m. EST, Orlando, Fla.?A poll taken at a meeting for the workers' compensation insurance industry has found that a lack of reserves is seen as the industry's most pressing issue.

That belief surfaced in an instantaneous poll taken by the National Council on Compensation Insurance at the Boca Raton, Fla., group's annual conference here.

Participants registered their opinion via keypads that were placed by their seats. About 500 persons are on hand here.

Of those polled, 31 percent listed reserve deficiencies as the "most critical issue" facing their industry in the next few years.

The poll followed a talk by NCCI consulting actuary Ron Retterath in which he projected that for 2001 the workers' comp reserve deficiency will hit $21 billion.

Behind reserve deficiencies, 28 percent of attendees at the conference listed the availability of affordable reinsurance as the industry's most pressing issue. Another 27 percent listed the need for terrorism backstop legislation. Smaller percentages listed overcapacity, 8 percent; federalization of insurance, 3 percent; medical records privacy, 2 percent; and potential impacts of new privacy regulations, 2 percent.