<\/p>\nAdd Preferred Source<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
In 2024, the most recent year available, there were nearly 900,000 people in the state who were involved in a motor vehicle crash, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles. That includes drivers as well as passengers, pedestrians and bicyclists who were involved in a crash. Of those involved, 33,000 people suffered injuries described as \u201cmoderate\u201d or \u201csevere,\u201d with an additional 118,000 described as sustaining minor injuries.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
While the number of crashes in the state has remained constant over the last several years, the number of injuries reported has risen by 8.5% since 2021, the motor vehicle data show.<\/p>\n
During a news conference Friday at the\u00a0Westmere Fire Department in Guilderland, Hochul said that high auto insurance costs affect not just individual policyholders but also local municipalities. She noted that high insurance costs for municipal vehicles can increase municipal budgets \u2014 which are largely funded by taxpayers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s firefighting equipment, emergency vehicles, police cars, senior vans, the recreation vans, all that has to come at a cost to the local taxpayers,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cThis is something that\u2019s just often absorbed, but it is a hit on local taxpayers through these additional expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prevalence of fraud<\/p>\n
New York is one of 12 so-called \u201cno-fault\u201d states, that require all drivers to file a claim with their insurance provider after a motor vehicle collision, regardless of who is at fault. Drivers in no-fault states must purchase personal injury protection as part of their auto insurance policies. No-fault policies can lead to higher premiums, as well as a propensity for fraudulent claims, said Sean\u00a0Kevelighan, CEO of the Insurance Information Institute.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cWe looked at New York versus the other 12 states, and you see that New York was higher than the other no-fault states,\u201d Kevelighan said. \u201cWe do see that having direct relation to litigation and fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2025, the state Division of Financial Services’ Insurance Fraud Bureau received more than 51,000 reports of suspected insurance fraud in the state from insurance companies, with 72% of all fraud reports related to no-fault auto insurance claims, numbers that have trended upward over the past few years.<\/p>\n
Apart from the reports submitted from insurance companies, which often go directly to law enforcement, the bureau opened 57 of its own investigations related to no-fault insurance fraud last year. That\u2019s more than any other type of fraud and represents about one-fifth of all fraud investigations reported for the year.<\/p>\n
Kaitlin Asrow, acting superintendent of the Division of Financial Services, said that the Insurance Fraud Bureau has recruited new members from federal agencies such as the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice as a result of increased fraud investigations.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen such a massive increase in suspicious fraud reports that we really are working to keep pace,\u201d Asrow said.<\/p>\n
In one incident, the bureau conducted a joint investigation with the New York City Police Department that resulted in the arrest of an organizer of an insurance fraud ring in Queens. The perpetrators had staged several accidents, with dashcam footage of one staged crash garnering attention after being shared on social media. The fraud ring also met inside a medical clinic in Brooklyn that had coached them on how to stage the crashes, and directed individuals to go to a specific medical clinic following the crash for treatment and diagnosis.<\/p>\n
Why ‘float’ matters<\/p>\n
The New York State Trial Lawyers Association has countered Hochul\u2019s assertions with some statistics of its own. The group has cited a report from Weiss Ratings, an investment and insurance rating firm, that shows that insurers in New York have increased the number of denied claims over the past two decades, with some firms denying more than 50% of all claims submitted.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
An important factor in profitability for insurance companies is the \u201cfloat,\u201d or the money the company holds between collecting premiums and paying out claims to providers. Rather than just holding the money, insurance companies often invest the float in the market to increase profit. Famed investor Warren Buffett has often championed investing floats from insurance companies under his ownership as part of his renowned investment strategies.<\/p>\n
Doug Quinn leads the American Policyholder Association, a nonprofit that advocates against fraud committed by insurance companies. Quinn, who lives in the New York City metro area, said too much leniency for insurance companies could incentivize them to deny more claims to increase their float.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no acknowledgement that fraud happens on all sides,\u201d Quinn said of the proposed insurance reforms. \u201cWhen you\u2019re only looking at change by restricting consumers\u2019 rights, we\u2019re not looking at the insurance industry to play a fair role in bringing premiums down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asrow said that the Division of Financial Services has hundreds of people working in its insurance division to oversee insurance companies and make sure they handle claims appropriately.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir job is to oversee the insurance company, making sure that the premiums that they\u2019re collecting are going out into claims, making sure their expenses are reasonable,\u201d Asrow said. \u201cWe are also obviously looking at the finances of the company to make sure it\u2019s solvent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The policies in question<\/p>\n
Proponents of the governor\u2019s proposed changes say that by taking steps to combat auto insurance fraud, it would give an incentive to more insurance companies to do business in the state. That in turn will create more competition, causing insurers to lower premiums to attract clients.<\/p>\n
There are several provisions in the governor\u2019s plan that are intended to address insurance fraud in the hopes of bringing down costs. The trial lawyers association has expressed support for some of the measures, including strengthening criminal penalties for individuals who organize staged car crashes.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
But the association remains strongly opposed to other portions of the proposal, including a section of the governor\u2019s transportation bill that would deny paid claims to parties found to be more at fault in a crash and would cap personal injury compensation at $100,000 if they are uninsured, were driving under the influence or committing a felony at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n
In a memo, the association said that section \u201crepresents an unprecedented weakening of core protections in New York\u2019s civil justice system for car accident victims and shifts the cost of crashes from wrongdoers and insurance companies to victims and taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hochul has cited similar amendments launched in Florida as a model for her own proposal. In 2023, Florida enacted changes that tightened the rules around lawsuits for auto insurance claims. Following those changes, Florida\u2019s average auto premiums declined by 5% in 2025, according to the Insurance Information Institute, although it remains one of the costliest states for insurance.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Kevelighan acknowledged that the insurance landscape in Florida differs from New York and that companies may act differently depending on where they operate.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach of the insurance carriers works with what variables they are able to use,\u201d Kevelighan said. \u201cDifferent states have different characteristics that impact pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul at a news conference in Guilderland Friday advancing her proposed auto insurance relief plan, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[609,844,75,84,83,9,24,63,530],"class_list":{"0":"post-202453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-government","9":"tag-latestnews","10":"tag-manhattan","11":"tag-manhattan-headlines","12":"tag-manhattan-news","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-state"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202453","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=202453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}