Business owners will pay less for workers' compensation. (Oregon)

Business owners will pay less for workers' compensation

While the price tag on employees' health insurance will likely show an increase in 1991, most business owners will see the insurance rates they pay for workers' compensation coverage drop.

Oregon health insurers are following the national trend, said an actuarial consultant, with rate hikes expected to jump between 12 percent to 15 percent. Those double-digit increases have come despite the fact that insurers did fairly well in 1990, but they are cautious about what the future holds.

Escalating health care costs, use of new, expensive technology and a trend toward cutbacks in government funding of health care programs have added t the uncertainty.

Locally, health insurers that channel patients to specific providers within a health maintenance of organization, have said they will raise this year between 10 and 35 percent. The insurers have said the bulk of the increases would be under 20 percent.

By far the most dramatic changes in health insurance have come within the workers' compensation realm.

About 80 percent of the state's …