David DePaolo - "The REAL Objection to Opt Out" - In response to a new report from Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, the founder of WorkCompCentral notes, "Work comp is the mainstay of the P&C industry, the single biggest commercial line, and the gateway to a whole host of much more profitable lines.  If opt out spreads beyond Texas it is hugely threatening to the interests of the PCI members because they stand to lose considerable business, particularly if opt out migrates to the bigger P&C states.  PCI is protecting its own interests (or those of its members) by objecting to opt out."  (Editor's note:  Of course, more savvy P&C insurance companies, like those listed above, have embraced change, innovation and competition by writing both workers' comp and Option insurance policies.)

Gary Thornton - "Texas Work Comp: Rising Above the Critics" - Texas legal expert, Gary Thornton, finds that recent papers by University of Wyoming law professor Michael Duff and the allied Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group criticizing the Texas Option to workers' compensation are "an accumulation of plaintiff attorney opinions and confusion of out-of-state persons who do not have sufficient working knowledge of the subject matter....At the end of the day, perhaps WILG and Professor Duff should make an investment of their time to learn how ERISA protests injured workers and how to litigate an ERISA dispute.  These authors should also further consider the ample remedies under Texas law for employer negligence liability, an exposure that provides more incentive to maintain a safe workplace.  No doubt, pursuing such claims does require some effort.  Perhaps, therefore, the real objective of these two papers is a desire to maintain the profitability of legal work favoring injured workers and reducing the attorney effort."

Mark Walls - "How Should Workers' Comp Evolve?"  This is an outstanding analysis of how workers' compensation systems should improve.  Almost every solution described in this article and others promoted at workers' compensation industry conferences over the past two years (such as employee claims advocacy, encouraging employers to be more engaged in their program administration, and learning lessons from the group health plan world) is already in place and delivering positive results under Texas and Oklahoma Option programs.  Many state legislators understand that creating a competitive Option can be the most efficient and effective path to meaningful workers' compensation system reform.