The research showed that 24 percent of people in the United States think that the behavior is acceptable.
The number of Americans who believe that insurance fraud is an acceptable behavior remains very high, as nearly a quarter of the people in the country feel that it is acceptable, according to a study.
This same research indicated that the approval of the behavior has actually fallen over the years.
Though the findings of the survey showed that 24 percent of Americans are alright with insurance fraud, this is actually a figure that is 9 percent lower than it had been in 2002, when similar research was conducted. At the same time, 86 percent of people in the United States feel that dishonest claims lead to higher rates for everybody.
This opinion regarding insurance fraud appears to be a common and yet conflicting one.
At the same time, over the last 11 years, those who carry this conflicting opinion about insurance fraud seem to be becoming fewer. The Insurance Research Council (IRC) study showed that 24 percent of the participants felt that it is acceptable to make a slightly higher claim in order to compensate for the deductibles that they are automatically required to pay.
Furthermore, the study also showed that 18 percent of the respondents felt that it was acceptable to make a higher claim in order to compensate for the premiums that had been paid over previous years in which no claims were made.
Among all of the respondents of the survey, it was the males aged 18 through 34 who were most likely to feel that a small amount of insurance fraud was acceptable, in the form of a padded claim. Twenty three percent of them felt this way, when compared to only 5 percent of male respondents in older age brackets, and only 8 percent of females within the same age group.
When examining this year’s IRC insurance fraud survey results and comparing them to those over the last 32 years, the organization has identified a positive trend in the views of consumers. They have clearly started to understand the impact that fraudulent claims are having on their own premiums, as well as the industry as a whole.
