To Be or Not To Be, That is The Question

Insured, Uninsured or Underinsured Which are you? Well, that may depend on which state you live in. According to the studies by the Insurance Research Council, Maine has a 4% uninsured rate for automobile insurance while New Mexico has the highest at 29%. New Hamphire is unknown as they are the only state that does not have a requirement for auto insurance. Although Massachusetts has quite a strict insurance/vehicle registration law they still manage to have 1% of their drivers uninsured. Why should you care?  Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage reimburses policyholders in an accident involving an uninsured, underinsured or hit-and-run driver. The reimbursement is for your medical bills not for your vehicle damage. It's serious because although you need your car, the amount of risk is much higher than the value of your car. Based on the cost  of a quick visit to a hospital, the cost of a lengthy stay would take months maybe years to pay off, one month at a time. Surely if you didn't injure yourself you wouldn't be happy to be left paying that sizeable hospital bill either. Underinsured motorist coverage works in your favor if the other guy had less coverage than you and did more bodily harm to you than their policy will pay. Your policy steps in and pays the difference in coverage for your medical bills.  Either way you end up in a much better financial position if you maintain the highest coverage possible on your policy. The outlook is not good if you do nothing to protect yourself.  Statistics show that these days the number of uninsured or underinsured drivers is rising in each state due to a single reason, the economy. The Insurance Research Council (IRC) has recently done a study and found that a single percentage point increase in the unemployement rate is associated with an increase in the uninsured motorist rate of more then three quarters of a percentage point of uninsured motorists. The scary part is that as the unemployment rate projections rise the chance of your being hit by an uninsured or underinsured motorist grows and is actually projected to be 18% on average during 2010. That is an increase of amost 5% since 2007. How do we protect ourselves?  Two ways: Increase your uninsured motorist coverage to equal your liability coverage to start and if you are currently carrying the minimum amount of coverage for your state increase it to the maximum. You will find that surprisingly the amount of additional premium to increase your coverage is not that great compared to the price to get into the game to begin with. Breaking down the increase on a per month or per day figure, surely you can afford to provide better protection for yourself, your family and your passengers. It's true that your major medical coverage will assist in the event of a hospital visit but with the increasing deductibles we are seeing on your health policy why should you pay that deductible amount out of your pocket when you could be actually saving money by increasing your auto insurance coverage. A $1,500 health insurance deductible works out to $125 per month and a $50 increase in auto insurance works out to $4.17 per month. The math speaks for itself. You decide.