Costs and Prices of Workers’ Compensation Insurance

Workers’ compensation insurance provides medical payments and cash benefits to over seven million injured workers per year. As such, it is probably the largest social insurance program in the nation after Social Security. In the private market alone, employers paid approximately $20 billion in 1986 to insure their obligations under the various state workers’ compensation statutes. Add to that the coverage provided by the federal government, state funds, and self-insurance, and the total expenditures for compensation of injury arising “out of, or in the course of employment” must exceed $30 billion. Given its size and scope, workers’ compensation insurance must be the most under-researched social insurance program in the nation.