Missouri Court Asked By Insurers To Block Move By Dept. To Implement W.C. ARP Depopulation Plan.

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JEFFERSON CITY. Mo. -- A group of insurers have asked the Cole County Court in Jefferson City. Mo., to block implementation of the plan of the Department of Insurance to reduce the number of employers in the high-risk workers' compensation insurance pool (the Assigned Risk Plan). Arguing that the plan is unconstitutional, the group, which represents 70 percent of the insurance providers in the market, wants the court to bar the plan until stale lawmakers give then go-ahead.

"No one is arguing that the current system isn't a mess--it needs to be fixed." said Deborah Kamp, spokesperson for the American Insurance Association. "But when the Legislature was debating how to correct the workers' compensation situation last year." Kamp asserted, "no agreement could be reached in this particular area. Rather than hold up the entire piece of legislation, a provision was put into the new law calling for the Department of Insurance to come up with a depopulation plan. But lawmakers also said they warned a chance to disapprove it before implemented because there was such strong disagreement about the approach to a solution."

Director of Insurance Jay Angoff wrote the Legislature on January 6. staling thai "the Legislature did not disapprove the plan."

Kamp said January 28 when the court action was...