The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "insurance premiums" ...
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Florida's Insurance Nightmare
Six years after eight hurricanes ripped across Florida, state residents still struggle to recover from the storms' legacy - a wrecked property insurance market. Exorbitant premiums, the highest in the world, have soured the state's struggling economy, killed real estate sales and forced families from their homes. Homeowners were told that unless they paid even more, no insurance company would take their hurricane risk. The Herald-Tribune showed that is a lie. Floridians have been lied to about why there is a crisis, where their money is going, and whether they're even protected against storm losses. Public policy has been corrupted by fiction spun by the insurance industry and its supposed regulators. Billions of dollars desperately needed for the next disaster have been siphoned offshore. And millions of homeowners are left to entrust their financial security on a system rigged to extort profit. To expose the hidden truth of Florida's insurance crisis, St. John cultivated key sources deep within every aspect of the insurance industry and sought massive amounts of financial and policy data from multiple state and national entities. When it became obvious Florida's crisis was manipulated from afar, she traveled to Bermuda and Monte Carlo to discover the hidden players truly in charge.
Tags: home insurance; property insurance; Florida; hurricane; real estate; insurance premiums; homeowners; Bermuda; Monte Carlo; state regulators; anti-trust law; State Farm
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Insurers Criticized for New Rate Models
This story investigates property-casualty insurers' use of controversial computer models created by various modeling firms; the computer models use complex data to project potential losses from hurricanes and other natural disasters. But investigative reporting revealed the models can be flawed in their design, in their assumptions or in their application by insurers.
Tags: housing; rate increases; computer models; potential losses; property insurance; premiums
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Contractor Pure Premium
Analysis of the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) has led to new conclusions about the marketplace and control of rates in the California workers' comp. It was found that if one carrier held a major market share of any specific class, or classes, that by adjusting its loss reserves or thoise reserves it reported to the Bureua by sheer magnitude of data it could affect the rates up or down as it chose.
Tags: classification relativity review sheet; x-mod; Steve Poizner; Patrick Andersen
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Does State Fund Control Contractor Pure Premium?; Pure Premium Decision Reveals Doubts About SCIF Expenses
State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) us a quasi-governmental provider of worker's compensation insurance and has been found to not be fairly competing with private insurance companies. The SCIF controls enough of the market to have an effect on the pure premium rates. Also, State Fund affects how much personal and business consumers end up paying in construction costs.
Tags: Worker's Comp Executive
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Insurance Investigation
The Star examined the insurance industry, using consumer complaints totaling more than 10,000 pages, interviewed hundreds of sources and gathered records for all 50 states. After sifting through information regarding the best and worst companies for consumer complaints both nationwide and in Kansas and Missouri, the Star discovered that Allstate Insurance of Northbrook, Illinois "had the most complaints for claims handing in the country," and "Farmer's Insurance Exchange of Los Angeles led all insurers for complaints over using credit histories to set premiums - a practice consumer advocates call discriminatory." In Kansas, American Investors Life Insurance Co. Inc. of Topeka had the worst complaint record of any annuity provider in the state. The study also found widespread fraud, and also that the insurance industry receives more complaints than banks and stock brokerages. Adding to the problems are the people who have scammed billions of dollars out of insurance companies, which raises premiums across the board.
Tags: insurance; fraud; American Investors Life Insurance Co. Inc.; Allstate Insurance of Northbrook, Illinois; Farmer's Insurance Exchange of Los Angeles
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At fault: Inside the culture of auto insurance fraud
This investigation reveals how auto insurance fraud has pushed premiums for Massachusetts drivers to among the highest in the nation. The series "connected the dots of an epidemic of fraud," from "frequent flyer" accident victims who pretend to suffer injuries in order to collect claims, to staged accidents in which people are recruited to file fraudulent claims, to lawyers and chiropractors who pay "runners" to solicit accident cases and victims of fake claims, to the criminal justice system and insurance companies that have failed to tackle the problem.
Tags: auto insurance fraud; car insurance; bodily injury claims; CAR; computer-assisted reporting
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Workers' Comp Inc.
By 1995, North Dakota's state Legislature had passed a sweeping reform package that brought about the first significant changes to the workers' compensation program. In this investigation nearly 10 years after the start of the program, it was found that; to the business community, the changes in workers' comp overall have been positive-premiums fell by a third; the fund itself has seen a reversal in fortune; but to some injured workers, the legislative changes have brought painful results.
Tags: worker compensation; injured employees; employer; workforce safety and insurance
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ANIC insurer under scrutiny
Behind all the good intentions, the construction of a commercial building by the Augusta Neighborhood Improvement Corporation (ANIC) is wrought with scams. Thanks to the misdeeds of Nevada-based Global Bonding Co. which was involved in a tax funnelling exericse, the building contractor was scammed. "Global was also paid, up front, nearly $ 60,000 in premiums for a performance bond-or insurance-policy that wasn't worth the paper it was written on".
Tags: Millennium Bonding; Nevada Division of Insurance; Robert Joe Hanson; Reve M. Pete; Pete Fletcher; Robert Cooks; Pat Mathis; Mayor Bob Young; Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine
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Speed Trap: Racial Patterns in Traffic Stops
The Boston Globe analyzed newly released state records on traffic stops and found that "on city boulevards and rural lanes, whites are far more likely than minorities to receive written warnings instead of tickets when stopped for identical traffic offenses." The report also looked at sex and gender, and found "women, especially young women, get breaks that aren't afforded to men." In order to then quantify the cost of such unequal treatment to the public, the Globe looked at factors such as lost ticket revenue and higher insurance premiums -- concluding "the price tag...amounts to an estimated $25 million a year." But the news wasn't all bad, as the analysis revealed the Massachusetts State Police did give almost identical treatment "to all drivers, regardless of race, sex, or age....No local police department of any size was as fair as the State Police." The earlier series (Jan 6-7) deals with how statewide, black and Hispanic drivers "received traffic tickets at a rate twice their share of the population." And when they were stopped, those drivers were "50 percent more likely to have their cars searched," even though whites were more likely to be found carrying drugs. The Globe uses tables and graphics extensively to convey the results of its analysis.
Tags: traffic; tickets; ticket; race; minority; trooper; cop; police; speeding; drugs; warning; gender; profile; profiling; citation; database; CAR; statistics; public records; open records; research; tables; graphics
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Fraud on Four Wheels
This hidden camera investigation uncovered a widespread network of insurance fraud from body shops to medical clinics to insurance offices. Personal Injury Protection fraud costs drivers an estimated $240 more a year for their insurance premiums.
Tags: insurance; driver's insurance