Senator Golden Wants to Lower Your Insurance Rates

Calls for strengthening penalties on ‘runners’ which would bring down fraudulent no fault insurance claims

Albany, NY – State Senator Martin J. Golden (R-C-I, Brooklyn) today is calling on his colleagues to pass S3033, which would make it a crime to act as a runner or employ runners in regards to defrauding insurance companies. A runner is a person who is paid for each patient they send to a fraudulent provider, recruiting patients who either do not need treatment, exaggerating illnesses, were not in car accidents or even going so far as to stage accidents.

By doing so, they drive up the costs of insurance, so much so that New York has one of the highest insurance rates in the country, especially inside the City of New York.

“These runners are using New York’s no-fault insurance to defraud the government, the insurance companies, and every single person who owns a car,” said Senator Golden. “Every time someone de-frauds no fault, our insurance rates go up. Every time a runner stages an accident, our insurance rates go up. We must act now so that we can start to get the cost of auto-insurance under control, and give some much needed relief to the residents of New York City. Defrauding the system is a crime, and those who facilitate this should be punished. This legislation does exactly that, and I call on my colleagues in the Senate and Assembly to pass this bill, and I ask the Governor to sign it into law.”