Like A Bad Neighbor.
It always amazes us to learn that a substantial percentage of Americans believe it's okay to rip off their insurance company. Perhaps these are the same folks who think it's “expected” to stroll from movie to movie in a multiplex on a single ticket, or sign up for free giveaways like tee-shirts or bobblehead dolls at the ballpark in return for a new credit card, knowing they will cancel the card when it arrives in the mail.
In any case, insurance fraud is seen as nothing more than a minor transgression–probably added into the cost of the policies, people rationalize.
The cost might be built in all right, but the result is higher premiums for everyone. It's time for the industry to really hammer that message home.
In the latest surveys, the Insurance Research Council found that 33 percent believe that it is “all right” to exaggerate insurance claims to make up for a deductible. In addition, 22 percent said it is acceptable to boost a claim to make up for premiums paid when no claims were made.
The only good news is that the percentage of those who accept the padding of claims has been steadily falling, but only slightly. The number of casual frauds remains way too high.
Insurers need to keep reminding policyholders that boosting claims beyond what is owed is a crime–and not a victimless one. People need to be told that their neighbors' casual greed raises the premiums of honest policyholders.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, August 18, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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