Business
If You Get in a Car Crash, the Risk Is Growing Your Insurance Won’t Pay
Americans got into more than six million traffic accidents last year.
Depending on the type of crash, the chance of getting a payout from your insurer has become increasingly remote.
Auto insurers didn’t pay out on 45% of auto liability and medical claims they resolved last year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of thousands of company regulatory filings. That rate might change slightly as more claims are resolved, but it is up from around one in three, or 35%, of such claims a decade ago.
Americans are required to pay for car insurance as a condition of driving. Yet often, the insurance doesn’t provide the financial backstop that car owners were expecting.
Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
You must be logged in to post a comment Login