WHY YOU need to review your auto insurance

thanks!

i need to look into the 'they are off the hook for my future medical costs' part. i was unaware that my health insurer was ever off the hook, and i have had several large medical bills due to accidents. (not car)

i do get their questionnaires asking if i have any other insurance that might be responsible.

some states don't require insurance for registration (at least in the past) so you're at risk from some out of state drivers.

then there are all the illegal aliens driving around without insurance even licenses. a total government failure, but it is what it is, so you have to be proactive.

all the best!

 

My mother's in the medical industry and she has endless stories of the shell games insurance companies play. My general takeaway is:

1. Bills/who pays is always negotiable. The downside is that you often have to put in many phone/in person hours and risk them sending you to collections before it gets settled (which may take years).
2. You may have to resort to public shaming (via news or social media) to get the insurer/hospital/doctor/etc to do what is right.

The worst part is that you often have to do this while still injured or sick. If you can find someone to be your advocate and/or share the burden of calling, that is the best option.

Good luck on your recovery!

 

Thanks for the heads up. And hope you fully recover.

But I think what you meant here is that "if" you get in an accident there is a 30% odds that the other guy is uninsured.

Mike

 

Good Pro tip about upping the medical and uninsured motorist!
My health coverage is through Blue Cross, and it used to be great but now I'm not so sure....

People always shop for insurance based on how low the rates are but sometimes customer satisfaction is more important.
Best and worst auto insurance companies for 2019 - Clark Howard

I had USAA for years, and can recommend them unreservedly except for how they dealt with my CFO, which got them fired by her.
(happy spouse, happy house)
Sadly, USAA is a little too 'old school' about the difference between military member and military spouse---something that gets my fur to stand on end as well, but if you can get past that, USAA is PEERLESS in customer service for auto AND life.

Uninsured drivers are a real problem, and my beloved home state has DUI check points, cleverly labeled as driver's license and insurance check points - and you know what?
They actually collect MORE fines from no proof of insurance than they do from people driving impaired, and these probably move the needles on insurance participation rates since our local agent repports that they're flooded with new applications after every major safety checkpoint push (like: Memorial Day Weekend.)

12 states in the US allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses and speaking apolitically I think it ought to be 52, since a large percentage of THOSE people actually get the insurance.

 

Last I checked, we didn't have that many states...

 

People say single payer sucks but then it’s only one entity you have to fight with.

Sadly insurance being for profit has a tendency of hitting you while your down and don’t want to fight.

So Good Luck, I’ve been through the very long process with a family member and it’s a lot of phone time and administrative law judge help.

Keep on top of it but don’t let it consume you, there is only so much you can do while you wait for the various companies to fight it out.

 

Thanks for the heads up advice, and I really hope you well and a quick recovery from the injury you suffered by the accident. Yes, you are correct that most health insurance would not pay (or at the lease tries not to pay) a penny if the cause of the medical bill is an auto accident.

That being said, the state required minimum liability coverage of an auto insurance for any states are waaaaaaaay too low for the real world. I don't know the hard percentage number of the drivers who carry only the state minimum. But, I suspect many, if not majority, of legit insured drivers carry this state minimum liability on their policy. That makes them under-insured drivers for most of serious accidents. Furthermore, many auto insurance policy including mine only allow limit of uninsured/under-insured part of coverage to be less than your liability policy coverage. So, if you have the state minimum liability coverage, chances are that you are only covered to that low limit for uninsured/under-insured part of coverage. Not very useful.

As much as I hate most insurance industry practices in general, my recommendation has always been to purchase the MAXIMUM coverage for both liability and uninsured/under-insured part of coverage. And if you can't afford it, then you shouldn't be driving on public roads. For me that difference is $25K vs $1M of coverage, yet my premium payment difference is less than ~$10/mo. No-brainer.

 

Maybe he was writing from a future that has DC and Puerto Rico as states?

 

maybe was playing cards and had a senior moment. happens to me all the time

 

Numerous state-by-state statistical outputs from Uncle Sam count DC and Puerto Rico as if they are states for said purposes. It would be very bad to leave them out. Both have greater populations than the smallest 'real' states.

Less frequently, even American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands get such an 'upgrade. Counting them, the U.S. 56 states or state-like entities.

 

Considering the rate of people going to the ER for motor vehicle crash injuries, that is a distinction without much difference.

2.5 million people seek such treatment each year in the U.S. That is only slightly below the total number of deaths from all causes. I.e. at current rates, most people will experience such an injury during their lifetime.

They can get both, at least in my state, as the driving requirements and processes are decoupled from residency status. Though soon, their driver's licenses won't be sufficient ID for boarding commercial flights. (Most legal residents here still have those not-federally-conforming licenses too.)

Considering that the number of uninsured drivers greatly exceeds the number of illegal residents, I'm not seeing this as an illegal immigration problem.

 

Regardless of how they count them, there are only 50 states. When those entities become states, then they can be counted as states.

 

Regardless of how anyone counts them, their legal residents are U.S. citizens with full U.S. citizenship rights -- except for elected representation in the federal government. (DC gets electoral votes, but none of the others do.)

When it comes to statistical measures of the U.S., excluding them skews the statistics and is simply idiotic.

If ETC(SS) wants to include them for state-type wishes or figures, he can follow plenty of precedent from Uncle Sam himself.

 

The discussion wasn't on statistics, it was on the number of states. And these aren't states. Leaving us with 50 states.

 

The discussion was not just on the number of states you say there are right now, but on the number of states he thinks ought to be doing this. He is fully free to wish those territories be upgraded to states parallel to the action in question.

As do I.

 

That's fine. But they aren't states, and the comment was 52 states. We can certainly be precise on this to 2 significant digits?

Edit - I counted on the flag on my front porch, and there are 50 stars.

 

The actual comment was:

I.e. not "are", but instead "ought to be".

 

"12 states in the US allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses and speaking apolitically I think it ought to be 52"

The subject is "states", so I read this as 52 states that should issue driver licenses, not 52 entities that issue driver licenses that should be states. At least we can agree that there are actually 50 recognized states in the US.

 

Rather that getting pissy about a few private citizens expressing "ought to be's", why don't you address your complaints to some vastly bigger fish operating in the "is" category?

Here is an example from the United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation:



Count down that "State" column and tell me how many 'state' rows are listed. I count 52. And remember one year with 53.

Until Uncle Sam 'fixes' these "by State" tables to just 50 in its own official publications, I'm not taking any shit from anyone about me using it in the same manner.