Insurance Companies Accused of Sticking Taxpayers with Multibillion-Dollar Bill

Aug. 19, 2021—A multibillion-dollar whistleblower lawsuit against 315 auto insurance companies who are accused of sticking taxpayers with billions in health care costs has been unsealed, the Detroit Free Press reported. 

The suit accuses insurance companies of "intentionally and systematically" failing to "accurately and completely report accident information involving their" customers.

Also at issue are medical costs that are picked up by Medicare and Medicaid after a motorist gets in an accident. By law, the suit alleges, insurance companies are supposed to reimburse the government for those medical bills. The lawsuit says it is costing the government billions of dollars as insurance companies don’t repay those costs, leading to taxpayers footing the bill. 

"We’re hoping to change the behavior of the insurance companies to automatically pay back the government when the government pays first," Troy attorney Shereef Akeel, one of many lawyers working on the lawsuit, told the publication, “and to recoup the billions of dollars that has been kept in the private insurance industry and bring it back to the public sector where it belongs."