The day’s major News events, business reports, sports updates, Rochester area weather information and tomorrow’s forecast are presented by the News10NBC Team.<\/p>\n
ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014 New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is taking action to address the high auto insurance rates in the state, which are among the highest in the nation. Hochul aims to reduce these rates by focusing on insurance fraud prevention.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Yorkers pay the highest auto insurance rates in the nation, averaging $4,000 a year, $1,500 more than the national average,\u201d Hochul said in her State of the State address<\/a>. <\/p>\n In 2023, more than 38,000 suspected insurance fraud cases were reported in New York. Hochul plans to tackle this issue by increasing efforts through the State Motor Vehicle Theft and Insurance Prevention Board. This includes utilizing dedicated staff and resources at the DMV, state police, and Department of Financial Services.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the system allows out of control payouts, those costs get passed on to you in the form of higher monthly premium bills,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cAnd if you are driving drunk, driving without a license, or committing a felony at the time of the crash, you should not get a payday.\u201d<\/p>\n Hochul\u2019s strategy involves a multi-agency approach to catch fraudsters, with tougher penalties. She also plans to increase oversight on medical providers who sign off on bogus injury claims and drivers who illegally register their cars out of state.<\/p>\n David Kirst from AAA of Western & Central NY says insurance fraud can have a major impact on auto insurance rates. \u201cIt\u2019s a big portion of it,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, in the article it show that it could cost the average driver almost $300 a year,\u201d Kirst said. \u201cAnd some studies show that it could actually be a higher rate on there because of that. So any way to crack down on a lot of that fraud is welcome in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n These initiatives aim to help drivers like Douglas Phillips, a medical courier, who shared his experience with insurance fraud. \u201cI\u2019ve been a part of insurance fraud. Somebody did the whole rear end on me a long time ago. They didn\u2019t have insurance. I had insurance. They got the full benefit, and I got nothing out of it,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n In addition to combating insurance fraud, Hochul plans to increase transparency for policyholders, improve incentives for safe driving, and limit damages for drivers mostly at fault in accidents.<\/p>\n Governor Hochul\u2019s office told News10NBC the exact timeline and cost of the new implementations will depend on when the 2026 New York State budget passes.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0insurance fraud<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0hochul<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0New York State<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The day’s major News events, business reports, sports updates, Rochester area weather information and tomorrow’s forecast are presented…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1984,48765,9,11,10,49],"class_list":["post-108222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-hochul","tag-insurance-fraud","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}