Executive Budget - Governor's proposals on fraud and insurance
New Yorkers are paying far too much for car insurance, more than $4,000 a year on average, nearly $1,500 above the national average. Fraud, staged crashes, abusive litigation, and weak enforcement are driving up costs for every hardworking driver in the state.
Governor Kathy Hochul’s 2026 State of the State proposals take direct aim at the bad actors who inflate premiums and drain family budgets.
Hochul aims to take on fraud and jackpot payouts by proposing to:
Crack down on organized fraud rings, not just drivers, but lawyers, doctors, and lawsuit funders who orchestrate them
Hold medical providers accountable for phony diagnoses and inflated bills
Prevent criminals and reckless drivers from cashing in on accidents they caused
Modernize the “serious injury” standard with objective, fair medical criteria
Give insurers the tools and time they need to investigate and stop fraud before it’s paid.
A.3800 / S.5231 - Establishes the crime of staging a construction site accident
This legislation is intended to reduce the increasing instances of insurance fraud in the form of staged construction accidents. The proposed legislation amends section 176 of the penal law to make staging a construction site accident for the purposes of insurance fraud a class E felony.
A.7392 / S.4874 - Unlawful procurement of a client
This legislation amends the penal law and the criminal procedure law to criminalize acting as a runner or soliciting or employing a “runner” to procure patients or clients.