Dog-Bite Claim Costs Rise Most Since 2007
Dog-Bite Claim Costs Rise
Yvonne Hemsey/Liaison/Getty Images
A Pit Bull Pit bears its teeth.
A Pit Bull Pit bears its teeth. Photographer: Yvonne Hemsey/Liaison/Getty Images
U.S. home insurers paid 5.3 percent more for the average dog-bite claim last year, the biggest jump since 2007, as medical expenses and jury awards increased, a trade group said.
The average cost per claim climbed to $26,166 last year from $24,840 in 2009, the Insurance Information Institute said today in a statement. The injuries cost $412.6 million in 2010, little changed from the previous year, as total claims declined 4.9 percent, the New York-based group said.
Dog bites accounted for more than a third of homeowners’ insurance-liability claims in 2010, the institute said. The average cost per dog-bite claim has surged 37 percent since 2003, when the cost was $19,162, and the total value of claims has risen 27 percent in that span, the group said. The number of claims declined last year to 15,770.
The jump in expense per claim “can be attributed to increased medical costs, as well as the size of settlements, judgments and jury awards,” Jeanne Salvatore, a spokeswoman for the institute, said in the statement.
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. and Allstate Corp. (ALL) are the largest U.S. home insurers.
“A lot of the dogs that have a problem are not neutered or not trained well,” Sandra DeFeo, executive director at the Humane Society of New York, said in a telephone interview. “The thing that worries us is that someone is going to be afraid of dogs for the rest of their life.”
Each year, 800,000 Americans, half of them children, seek medical attention for dog bites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Of those injured, about 16 die, according to the CDC.
Most residential insurance policies provide $100,000 to $300,000 in liability coverage for dog bites, the institute said. A homeowner responsible for an injury may be required to reimburse the victim for medical costs and lost wages, the group said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Marcinek at Lmarcinek3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Kraut at dkraut2@bloomberg.net.
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