After our post yesterday ended up crashing the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ consumer information website, we received an email from them. They said they wanted to explain how the site works to address some reader questions, as well as point out that you too can contribute to the rankings by filing complaints when your insurer does something objectionable.

Hello Consumerist,

Your post has created a great deal of traffic on our Consumer Information Site (CIS) and unfortunately the demand generated seems to have crashed our system, several times today. Please share our sincerest apologies to your readers and invite them to try again later if they are unable to get the data they seek.

In addition we can address some of the comments:

Extremely large or small complaint ratios can occur for a number of reasons, all very technical, all very boring. However, the CIS does include actual complaint counts along with reports on complaint codes which provide information about complaints by type. The CIS also provides financial and licensing information about the company, and allows users to check ratios for any state.

In addition: If you are an insurance consumer and have a complaint, please contact your state insurance department (www.naic.org/state_web_map.htm) and file it.

Complaints can also be filed through CIS (when the system is working). The complaint filing process provides important information to state regulators. They may be able to assist you directly and use the information to determine whether further market conduct examination is warranted.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) reminds all consumers to shop around and contact their state insurance departments to be sure that they are dealing with licensed carriers and producers.

For insurance tips and information we invite consumers to check out: insureUonline.org.

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