A few of us have heard the old “it’s not you, it’s me” line, and usually it’s not talking about good news! Well this can happen with auto insurance too–say you get hit by another vehicle and it’s not your fault. You exchange information and you expect to not pay out of pocket for medical bills; however, the other driver gets quiet and says “it’s not your policy, it’s my policy.” Even worse than getting broken up with, you can get hit by a driver that either doesn’t have insurance or doesn’t have enough insurance! Of course you can take the other driver to court, but if they don’t have the money to pay for your medical expenses, a judge telling them they have to won’t change the fact that they don’t have assets! And you’d be out of pocket for those expenses until the money comes through (if it even does!) for those bills.
Is there a way to avoid this? Well, we can’t sell you insurance to avoid break ups, but we can help with coverage when somebody else doesn’t have the right insurance! There are two cases–the person has no insurance at all and the person doesn’t have enough insurance. If they don’t have insurance, any amount of damage wouldn’t be covered, and you’d be responsible for getting them to pay out of pocket for your medical bills. The second scenario is when they have some insurance, but not enough to pay for your $200,000 worth of medical bills. If their insurance only covered $50,000 total, they’d have to pay $150,000 out of pocket. Unless Tom Brady crashes into you, chances are you’ll be out of luck recovering that $150,000. Uninsured motorist coverage and underinsured motorist coverage will ensure you can get your medical bills paid. It will pay out anything that isn’t covered by the other person’s policy (if they even have a policy) up to the coverage limit you elect. Don’t pay out of pocket for an accident that’s not your fault–get UM/UIM coverage!
