Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 6:40 am Post subject: What does PIP cover?
A guy on his wild ride had hit my car on the highway and fled. My wife, who was driving my car, was severely injured and is in a state of shock. Her medical bills are enormous. I have PIP on my auto insurance. Will it cover my wife's medical bills too?
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I empathize with your situation. It is very unfortunate that people often cause damages to others by their mindless acts. _________________ Register Now to have your Insurance queries solved.
PIP covers the medical bills that you incur in an automobile accident. If you have taken out PIP on your name it will cover you as the ‘named insured' additionally it offers coverages to people living in the same household or is in relation with you. However, it normally limits the coverage level to $10,000.
Hope your wife will get well very soon my prayers are with her.
Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:09 am Post subject: Uninsured Motorist Coverage
Yeah right, I'll second Cynthia. Some people really don't care about others. You have PIP coverage, all right but you can also claim the benefits of Uninsured Motorist Coverage (if you have one). UM Bodily injury coverage pays off your medical bills if you are a victim of a hit-and-run case or the at-fault party is uninsured. It will also cover your family members, authorized drivers of your vehicle and other passengers.
It would have been the best, if by any chance you could collect the information about that crazy driver and made the claim on his insurance (if he has any). But I presume that the chances are remote. In such scenario you can depend on your uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage just to avoid paying the huge medical expenses out-of-pocket.
As Juanita mentioned, PIP addresses medical bills and usually loss of work. But the type of coverage and amount of coverage differs dramatically from state to state (Michigan offers unlimited PIP that can last a life time). Of course, Fatman is correct also with UMBI. You _really_ need to report the accident to your insurance company if you've not done so already. With your wife's medical bills being so high, it seems that this did not just happen today. IN addition to addressing medical bills and loss wages, uninsured motorist bodily injury can also address general damages (pain and suffering, etc). Not all state allow for UMBI and not all policies have it.
Excellent info from Fatman, TCope and Juanita. I knew I liked this place.
A bit more. PIP normally provides a package of coverages, and typically includes some other protections. The coverage will normally apply for one year from the date of loss, and it'll usually pay for, in addition to injury:
Wage loss to a specific dollar maximum.
Loss of services to a specific limit per day/week/month
Funeral services if necessary to a certain maximum.
All of these limits are set by statute and rule in every state that has PIP available. Check your policy's declaration page for your limits, and then look for the expanded portion that explains what they mean withinin the policy itself. Don't worry, you should be able to understand the language.
Good luck, and I hope things work out well for you.
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