In Washington State, insurance companies have to offer you PIP (Personal Injury Protection) and UIM (Under-Insured Motorist) coverage. If you decide not to buy it, you have to sign a document saying you don’t want it. So should you buy it? Yes, absolutely! Do not decline either PIP or UIM coverage. Here’s why.
First, those insurance coverages are not very expensive in your total insurance package. If you carry liability, comprehensive and collision, PIP and UIM, the last two will be only about a fourth of the total bill. You can generally save more by raising your comp and collision deductible, or if you drive an older car, eliminating those altogether, than by getting rid of PIP and UIM. This varies, depending on your company and what insurance you buy, but the PIP and UIM are the less expensive parts of your policy.
Second, you really need PIP and UIM. If you get in an accident, whether it’s your fault or not, your PIP will pay your medical bills. 100%. No deductible and no co-pay, up to the limit you have bought. (You can buy 10K, 25K or 35K, and I recommend the 35K.) Your health insurance won’t do that, and they will probably limit the number of visits you can have per year. If the accident is the other guy’s fault, don’t expect his insurance company to pay your bills as they come due. You have to come up with money to do that in order to get well and have a good claim, but they won’t help. They will only pay when you release the other driver.
As for UIM, a lot of drivers are out there without enough insurance or with no insurance at all. Your UIM takes over where the other driver’s insurance leaves off, or covers you if he had no insurance. So if you have medical bills of, say, 20K, and lose another 25K in wages, because of an accident the other guy caused, besides all your pain and suffering, you may be entitled to a claim of 100K to 200K. Fat lot of good that will do you if the other guy had only 25K of insurance. Or zero! But if you have UIM coverage, it takes over. So if you have a 250K UIM policy, you would be completely covered, even if the other driver (aka “idiot”) doesn’t have enough insurance.
Bottom line: Don’t decline PIP and UIM coverage. And check your policy now to make sure you have them.
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