Cathy Osten

Senator Osten Welcomes Yet Another Drop in CT Workers’ Comp Costs

State Senator Cathy Osten (D-Sprague) today issued the following statement in reaction to yet another announced drop in Connecticut’s workers’ compensation costs, thereby saving Connecticut businesses tens of millions of dollars in insurance premiums every year:

“Back in 2014, when I was Senate Chair of the Labor Committee, I introduced a bill – Senate Bill 61 – that changed forever the way Connecticut businesses pay for workers’ compensation insurance. My bill, which passed the legislature on a unanimous and bipartisan vote, required hospitals to negotiate with and charge businesses medical fees that are based on a cheaper Medicare-based formula, instead of a hospital’s outrageously expensive published, billable cost for some medical procedure. Suddenly, business owners were paying premiums for the $14,000 ‘Medicare’ price of a shoulder surgery instead of the hospital’s $44,000 ‘list’ price. And that 2014 legislation has saved Connecticut businesses hundreds of millions of dollars in workers’ comp insurance premiums ever since. Connecticut now nearly ranks in the Top 20-lowest states for workers’ compensation insurance costs; our costs are comparable to Oklahoma, Missouri and Nebraska. From 2014 to 2018, Connecticut had the fourth-smallest percentage increase in workers’ compensation insurance costs of any state in America, according to the National Academy of Social Insurance. This is one of the great, unsung business cost-savings stories in recent Connecticut history, and it all started with Democrats on the Labor Committee.”