What is Personal Injury Protection?

The best automobile insurance policies include several items: personal property liability, uninsured motorist coverage, collision coverage, bodily injury liability, comprehensive coverage and personal injury protection (PIP). Some of these elements are an imperative in the state while others are an option. Collision coverage pays for all damages to a road vehicle when it is in collision with another road vehicle or object, even if the policyholder is at fault. Comprehensive insurances protect the policyholder in the situation that their road vehicle is taken illegally, damaged by vandals, harmed by an act of nature or damaged by some other means.  Both of these plans are always optional and are usually very costly.

Bodily injury and personal property insurance are mandatory by all the states in the U.S.A in in one way or another. The states differ greatly, however, in the required minimum guaranteed payout. In the state of Alaska, for example, a driver is required to carry coverage that has a guaranteed minimum bodily injury payout of $100,000. But in Florida, a driver is only required to carry coverage worth $10,000.

Some parts of an auto insurance policy that could be a required element are personal injury protection and cover for the uninsured motorist. The uninsured motorist coverage protects the policyholder in case he or she is involved in an incident with a person who is not insured. It provides the insurances that would have been supplied by the other protagonist. In the event of an accident, PIP pays for the medical expenses and other miscellaneous damages incurred by the policyholder and their passengers (or if the policyholder is an injured pedestrian). Carrying PIP is mandatory in the following states: Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon and Utah.

Even if PIP is an option in your state, you may still want to consider purchasing the insurances. In the event of an accident, PIP will pay around 80% (depending on insurances limits) of the costs of the policyholder and passengers. These costs include medical bills, lost wages and other miscellaneous expenses. PIP is a no-fault policy, so it will cover you and your passengers, even if the reason for claim was your fault.

PIP, often known as Medical Payment Insurance or Medpay, is a no-fault insurances for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the fact that liability does not have to be ascertained saves time and consequently allows medical payments to get to the injured parties as soon as possible.

Secondly, it saves all interested parties from the cost of lawsuits being filed in order to prove who is responsible for an accident and therefore who has responsibility for the bills. One time a PIP policy might allow for a lawsuit is if there is death or serious injury.

Before you purchase PIP, you would be advised to sort through your current policies and see whether or not the insurances offered by PIP is duplicated anywhere else. For example, the cost of missed salary and medical expenses may be recovered through existing health insurance cover. If this is the case, then you may need minimal PIP or none at all. Your driving behavior will also help determine whether or not you need PIP. Do you carry passengers on a regular basis? While your health insurance might cover your own medical expenses, it won’t cover those of your passengers (unless they are family members who are covered by your health plan). Ask your regular passengers about their own health insurances and its coverage. If they are inadequately covered or not covered at all, you need PIP in order to cover them. This may seem unfair, especially if you’re the one driving an office car pool, but the safety of any passenger riding in your car is always going to be your responsibility.

If you happen to reside in a state that requires PIP you will need to know the minimum amount of cover you must have because this has already been decided for you. If you live in a state where PIP is an option however, you might decide that you need the extra insurances anyway. How much insurances you need depends, by enlarge, on your age. If you are middle-aged or older, have good health and liability insurance policies, then you will need minimal PIP insurances. However, if you are just starting on the path of life and still don’t have much in the way of health and liability insurance, you will want to protect yourself, your family and your future by carrying as much insurance as you can afford. This is particularly true if you have young children or if you constantly carry others in your road vehicle.