Washington State Keeping State WC Monopoly Fund

Voters in Washington state decided to retain their state's monopoly fund for Workers' Compensation. This means that insurance companies will not be allowed to insure Washington employers for their Workers' Comp liabilities, and employers there will continue to have to use the state fund for that purpose.

Insurance companies had lobbied hard to change things--I guess the Workers Compensation insurance can't be completely unprofitable--but ultimately, the voters decided to keep the monopoly fund going. Only a couple of states and territories still operate monopoly funds for Workers Comp--the trend in recent years has been to shift away from monopoly funds and embrace a competitive private insurance system. But Washington won't be joining that trend, at least not for now.