First, you have to recognize that you were in fact responsible. Whether or not the insurer took a long time to settle, you had an obligation to pay the bill. You needed to either pay it and then seek insurance reimbursement, or you could perhaps have spoken to the creditor and gotten them to agree to not take action until the insurance was resovled. However, either way you needed to do something; if you didn't, then given that you were obligated on the bill, as unfair as it seems, you are responsible for the default.You can therefore not necessarily "remove" this information, since it's accurate. You can ask the credit bureau(s) to include an explanatory statment about the situation, which may help; other than that, you'll need to wait until the information leave your credit score in a few years, and in the meantime take steps (like responsible use of secured credit cards) to build up your rating.