Department of Insurance

• Insurance fraud is the 2nd largest economic crime in America after income tax evasion.
• Insurance fraud costs 10 to 25 cents out of every insurance premium dollar consumers pay.
• Insurance schemes steal at least $80 billion a year, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud estimates.
• Young adults aged 18-24 are more than three times more likely to inflate a claim than adults over age 40.

• The U.S. spends more than $2 trillion on healthcare annually. At least three percent of that spending — or $68 billion — is lost to fraud each year. (National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association , 2008)
• Nearly 40 percent of Americans currently do not understand their medical bills or explanation of benefits statements well enough to know what services they are paying for, why they owe that amount, and if that amount is correct. (Intuit , 2010)

• More than half (55 percent) of U.S. consumers say poor service from an insurance company is more likely to cause a person to defraud their insurers.
• Nearly one of four Americans says it's ok to defraud insurers, 8 percent say it's "quite acceptable" to bilk insurers, and 16 percent say it's "somewhat acceptable”. (Accenture , 2003)
• One of five U.S. adults — about 45 million people — say it's acceptable to defraud insurance companies under certain circumstances.
• About one in 10 people agree it is ok to submit claims for items that aren't lost or damaged, or for personal injuries that didn't occur.
• More than two-thirds of consumers (68 percent) say they believe insurance fraud happens because people believe they can get away with it.
• One of three Americans say it's ok to exaggerate insurance claims to make up for the deductible. (Insurance Research Council , 2000)
• One of four Americans says it's ok to pad a claim to make up for premiums they've already paid. (Insurance Research Council , 2000)

According to research [1][2] by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud (CAIF ), the following are common perceptions that may lead people to commit insurance fraud:

• People have relatively low sympathy for insurance companies being victimized by fraud.
• People view insurance fraud as a crime of easy money with little risk of getting caught, or of few serious consequences if they are caught.
• People lack a strong sense of outrage over insurance fraud as a crime, and view fraud as a victimless crime.
• People commit fraud to get a fair return on the premiums they paid.