The Retrospective Rating Plan for Workmen's Compensation Risks [Discussion]

Mr. Pinney's paper is a very comprehensive treatment of a relatively new method of applying an old principle. The Retrospective Rating Plan of which Mr. Pinney writes is a legitimatised form of "stop-loss" coverage (long the object of recrimination, argument, envy and despair from our primary carriers' viewpoint) with the addition of "service" and with rates based at least upon some experience. The foundling has been legally adopted, clothed in seemly raiment, and given a name. This is said in no spirit of criticism, but merely as a statement of fact. There is nothing inherently wrong in adopting weapons of one's opponents. Since the paper is as much an apologia as an exposition, it would be difficult to discuss it without entering into arguments pro and con. These, however, are recorded in great detail in the records of various rate-making organizations and elsewhere. It is therefore perhaps unnecessary to enter into them here.