Insurers that provide workers' compensation coverage in California lost about $2.3 billion last year, according to a report by the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, the Sacramento Bee's "Capitol Alert" reports.
Details of Report
The report found that insurers that provide workers' compensation coverage for most California employers collected about $10.4 billion in premiums in 2011.
However, the insurers paid out $7.7 billion for health care services and support benefits and had expenses of $5 billion last year, according to the report.
The losses on workers' compensation plans in 2011 were greater than those experienced by insurers in 2010.
The report does not include data from large private and public employers who often self-insure for job-related injuries.
Implications
According to "Capitol Alert," the report could bolster efforts by insurers to increase premiums on workers' compensation plans.
Insurers and other stakeholders are seeking to alter reforms made eight years ago to California's workers' compensation system, "Capitol Alert" reports?(Walters, "Capitol Alert," Sacramento Bee, 6/26).
Details of Reforms
In 2004, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)?convinced lawmakers to make several cost-cutting changes to the workers' compensation system. Schwarzenegger's administration subsequently adopted additional administrative rules.
The changes have reduced employer costs, but other stakeholders have criticized the changes.
They argue that, under the changes:
- Disabled workers are not receiving adequate compensation;
- Health care is too tightly controlled; and
- Insurers are losing money on workers' compensation policies (California Healthline, 3/29).
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Public release date: 21-Mar-2012
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The Silent Hill series has wound its way through many protagonists, some genuinely interesting and relatable, others notably less so. This time around, inmate Murphy Pendleton is the man destined to enter America?s most haunted town. Pendleton is an inmate at Ryall State Corrections Facility, though what he was convicted for is not immediately evident. His arrival into Silent Hill is an unfortunate accident. During a prison transfer, the bus Pendleton is on crashes, and in his ensuing attempt to escape, he blunders blindly into Silent Hill. This moment is actually one of the weakest in an otherwise well-told story. During the first few hours, it?s hard to tell whether Murphy is actually a likable protagonist. Details about his past ? even the key detail of why he was imprisoned ? are held at arm?s length until several hours in.?The game?s opening sequence, in which Murphy kills a fellow prisoner, seemingly in cold blood, casts further doubt upon his believability as a Silent Hill protagonist. The style of horror the series uses is centered around the player feeling connected to the protagonist, and a convicted felon, especially one as murderous as Murphy initially seems, is hard to relate to. Once you enter Silent Hill, however, and the town begins to taunt Murphy with his own past, necessitating the game?s reveal of key details about his life, the story of Silent Hill: Downpour really finds its legs, and you find yourself finally getting invested. It simply takes a little too long to reach that point.
A Silent Hill game wouldn?t be a Silent Hill game if it didn?t feature clunky combat, and Downpour unfortunately excels all too well at this. Murphy can only carry two weapons ? one melee and one holstered ? with melee weapons degrading over time. In theory, this means that you?ll have to make do with what you can find on short notice. In practice, however, there are only a couple of melee weapons that are really worth carrying. Axes can break the boards off of boarded up doorways, and harpoons (which actually resemble overlong fire pokers) can hook onto ladders to pull them down into arm?s reach. This means that you?ll always want either one or the other in your hand. Weapons constantly spawn in the same locations, so as long as you?re outside, you get a pretty good feel for where the good weapons are.
There are also a wealth of technical issues, the most egregious of which are frequent drops in the frame rate that sometimes devolve into an outright stutter, making the game hiccup as you walk up and down the streets of the town. The camera is also frequently a bother, especially when in combat, as it doesn?t seem to mesh well with the block mechanic. Problems like this are simply not acceptable in current generation gaming. Hardware is sufficiently powerful that frame rate issues are out and out laughable, and by now, third-person games have evolved to the point where problems with the camera are more than just a frustrating issue in the game, they?re an overt slap in the face.
