The New York SUM bill that passed by a slim margin at the end of the state legislative session in June this year is now again drawing flaks from NY citizens who think that making the supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorist (SUM) auto insurance coverage as an automatic inclusion in each policy will just be an additional burden to insurance consumers.

David Schwartz, the spokesman for the New Yorkers Stand Against Insurance Fraud opined that what New York residents need is not an additional insurance burden such as the SUM but reforms in the state’s no-fault law. Schwartz declared that what NY people need is a legislation that “will put an end to the accident-staging enterprises which endanger the public’s well-being and lead to increasing insurance costs.”

Schwartz is referring to the Alice’s Law, a bill named after a Queen’s grandmother who was killed in a staged car accident, which is still pending right now in the state legislation.

To their opinion, the supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage would just add to the “outrageous insurance fees.” The spokesman explained that the result of the NY SUM Bill will be two fold. That it will result to insurance consumers buying the SUM coverage out of fear that they might be victims of uninsured or underinsured drivers, and on the other hand, the insurers would have to raise insurance rates as they would be exposed to the additional liabilities that the said law would bring upon.

Schwartz believes that New York’s no-fault system is being actively abused by those enterprises who participate in the no-fault fraud, and even by trial lawyers who he say will benefit from the litigations.

With the SUM Bill, each NY auto insurance policy will automatically include the SUM coverage and the insurance consumers will have to opt-out if they wanted not to avail of the said coverage. The supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage extends the uninsured/underinsured protection to out of state accidents.