The single biggest learning experience and regret that the majority of my personal injury clients have is either not having any, or not enough Medical Payment Insurance Coverage, or Med Pay. Med Pay is a coverage that you can purchase from your auto insurance agent. Med Pay is CHEAP!!! The reason you may not have it, or may not have much of it, is because insurance agents don’t make any money on selling this coverage. This coverage actually covers you, and the people you care about in your car.
Med Pay coverage pays for any related medical bill that you suffer if injured in a car accident. It does not matter if a crash is your fault, or the fault of another driver. If you have medical bills, this coverage pays for it. That is a very big deal when you are looking at tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills for a serious accident. I would suggest having at least $25,000 in med pay coverage for you and your family. This should only cost a few dollars a month for any insurance company. Considering that this great coverage is cheap, but can really cover very serious medical bills, I consider it a must have. Every single client I have ever had, has wished they not only had med pay, but wished they knew this information and that they had as much med pay as they could afford.
As an example of how much money med pay can save you, consider this: You are in a collision and it is the other driver’s fault. You incur $10,000 in medical bills. The other driver’s insurance gives you their policy limits of $25,000 to settle your case. With no med pay $10,000 of the $25,000 will be paid to your bills, leaving you $15,000 on your own, or to pay an attorney with. If you had at least $10,000 in med pay coverage, your bills would be paid by med pay and you would keep the entire $25,000 from the other driver’s insurance. Med Pay is not paid back if you recover from another party. So, every dollar you have in med pay coverage, is a dollar that you put in your pocket, and not pay out to a medical provider.
If you have any questions about this or any other insurance issue, please call our office for a free evaluation and consultation.
Marty is a former criminal prosecutor in the Cascade County Attorney’s Office and now uses that experience to defend those accused of crimes. A University of Montana School of Law graduate, Marty focuses his practice on personal injury and criminal defense and is a premier DUI defense attorney. He is also well versed in the insurance claims industry and has negotiated significant settlements with nearly every major insurance company.