State Stix                                                       

Consumer complaints against insurance companies dropped 6.3 percent in 1992, compared with a year earlier, the state Department of Insurance reported recently. Total complaints fell from 13,870 in 1991 to 12,992 last year, led by a decline in complaints related to life and accident and health coverage.

"We believe that the reduction in accident and health complaints may be due at least in part to a trend among larger employers to become self-insured," Insurance Director Stephen Selcke said. "A substantial number of Illinoisans also remain uninsured or uninsurable."

Geographically, the bulk of complaints, 62 percent, came from the Chicago metropolitan area. Two-thirds of 1992 complaints related to auto or accident and health coverage, 9 percent to home and 8 percent to life insurance with miscellaneous coverages taking up the rest.

Donald Sevener

November 1993/Illinois Issues/33