 TITLE: What Is an Insurance Claim? CONTENT: How Can Making a Claim Affect Your Policies and Premiums?\n---------------------------------------------------------\nFiling a claim may or may not affect your policy premiums depending on your insurance company, the type of insurance and the specifics of the claim. For example, some home and auto insurers give you a discount if you go a certain number of years without filing a claim; file a claim, and you'll lose that discount.\nWhether an auto insurance claim causes an increase in premiums depends on a variety of factors, such as whether the claim is over a specific dollar amount, whether the incident is determined to be your fault, your overall driving record and your previous claims history.\nIn the case of homeowners insurance, insurance losses associated with the home in the past five years—even if you didn't own the home at the time—can indicate a higher likelihood of future claims. If your home's previous owner filed a hurricane damage claim two years ago, for instance, and you file a claim this year, it may suggest the home is at high risk from hurricanes. Multiple burglary claims may indicate that you're in a high-crime area or aren't taking proper precautions to protect your home. Either situation could lead to a rate increase.\nHealth insurance premiums work very differently. The Affordable Care Act prohibits insurers from raising an individual's rates based on his or her health. Any rate increases must be based on the overall \"risk pool\" the individual belongs to.\nEvery year, health insurance companies assess how much care for different risk pools cost that year, estimate how much those costs will change in the coming year, and base premiums on those calculations. If your insurance company estimates that costs for women aged 30 to 35 will go up next year, for example, and you're a 33-year-old woman, your rates will go up whether you filed one claim or 100. END