With so many different kinds of auto insurance coverage it can be difficult to know exactly what you need to purchase to protect yourself. Medical payments coverage is particularly confusing. By taking the time to understand medical payment coverage, and its close relative, uninsured motorists coverage, you can buy the right coverage for yourself.
What Medical Payments Insurance Covers
Medical payments insurance coverage, also called personal injury protection, is intended to cover your own medical expenses. It also covers lost wages and other costs that you may experience when you are involved in an accident. In addition to providing coverage for yourself, it may also cover other people who are riding in your vehicle. If you are at fault in an accident, and your passengers are not family members, your liability insurance would provide coverage for them. Medical payments insurance coverage may impose a limit on how long the coverage extends after an accident.
Duplicate Coverage?
Medical payments insurance coverage may duplicate insurance coverage that you already carry. If you have a comprehensive, high limit medical plan, you may want to forgo the medical payments coverage unless it is required by your state. Your medical payments plan may be subordinate to other insurance providing the same coverage like your health plan, so if you are injured in an accident, it may not even begin to pay any benefits until your health plan coverage is exhausted.
Legal Requirements
Some level of medical payments coverage may be necessary to drive your vehicle legally. It is required coverage in 16 states, including Florida, Massachusetts and New York. Your insurance agent will advise you of your state's requirements. A positive aspect of medical payments coverage is that it is not very expensive to purchase, whether it is required or not.
Uninsured Motorists Coverage
Uninsured motorist coverage is similar to medical payments coverage in that it pays expenses that you incur if you are in injured in an accident where someone else is at fault and he does not have any insurance or lacks enough coverage. It may also pay for property damage that you experience. Uninsured motorists coverage is required in 22 states, including the only two states that do not require liability insurance. You may want to purchase uninsured motorists coverage to protect you against the estimated 16.3 percent of drivers on the road who do not have insurance coverage, according to the Insurance Research Council.
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