State cracking down as insurance fraud costs you hundreds of dollars each year

PITTSBURGH — Insurance fraud in Pennsylvania is costing your family between $400-700 every year. And now the Pennsylvania Attorney General said the $2 billion a year business has got to stop.

“Way too much.”

That’s how Cheryl Unrue described her current insurance situation. She said her health insurance rates are out of control and she sees no relief in sight.

“You pay all this money and they don’t cover everything,” she said.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the reason behind your health, car and life insurance rates being so high is because of insurance fraud.

He said the state is now working change that, sharing at a Thursday news conference that state investigators have charged 465 people with insurance fraud.

209 of those people, nearly half, are from western PA.

“Whether if its health insurance, car insurance, life insurance; all of them are negatively affected by insurance fraud. That means all PA is negatively affected,” Shapiro said.

Officials said the most common type of fraud deals with car insurance.

It’s a situation many people have faced: you let your car insurance lapse and then get into an accident.

“And then immediately open and reinstate insurance at the scene of the accident. And once the policy is up and running, they will go file a claim lying about when the accident occurred,” said Shapiro.

State leaders said they are watching, so far recovering $3 million in ordered restitution. For many, they said, the hope is with the state getting tough on insurance fraud, insurance companies might take it easy on their wallets.

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