In 1989, insurance companies dramatically increased Texas workers’ compensation premium rates, and many exited the market because of uncontrolled medical and legal payments under the law then in effect.

Those insurance companies (and an under-capitalized state insurance fund) charged premium rates that were so high, many Texas employers were forced to drop workers’ compensation insurance to stay in business.  

Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of Texas workers had no on-the-job injury coverage. So, Texas employers began to – voluntarily – develop their own, private occupational injury benefit programs to care for their most important asset.  

By applying common sense to getting the best medical outcomes for injured workers, without many of the complexities found in the government-run program, these injury benefit programs quickly gained popularity. To date, these programs have successfully:

• Provided injury benefit protection to more than one million workers every day,
• Successfully resolved more than one million injury claims by paying billions of dollars in benefits and negligence liability settlements and judgments to injured workers and their families,
• Generated billions of dollars in cost savings and economic development for Texas, and
• Helped make Texas the best place to do business and raise a family.  

Read more on “The Market” for Texas injury benefit programs.

Learn more at Part 1: 30 Years of Innovation in Injured Worker Care