Workers’ compensation insurance rates around the nation continue to drop, due largely to legislative reform efforts in a number of states as well as better safety practices by employers, industry sources report. But some in the insurance industry wonder whether a changed political landscape with more liberal state legislatures and insurance commissioners could slow down or end that decline.

In its annual “state-of-the-line” analysis released in May, the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) found that 2006 rates were the best that they had been in 25 years, and that trend appears to be continuing into 2007, says Peter Burton, senior division executive for state relations for NCCI. The council has filed for rate increases in two states but for decreases in nine, including a 16.5% cut in Florida, which passed workers’ compensation reform in 2003. “We’re probably just a third into our cycle, but I would say from at least now until next July, as we progress through this filing cycle, we’re probably going to see a much similar pattern,” he says.