Uninsured motorist coverage
 

While trying to get a quote today we were were told by an insurance agent that we did not need to have Uninsured Motorist coverage. He said that Medicare would cover our medical. Does anyone know if this is true? I did search online and it said yes, that Medicare would cover us for medical, just not for other things UNI would cover...loss of wages, mental anguish, the car itself, etc. We're curious if anyone has dropped their Uninsured Motorist coverages. I never really gave it any thought, just always had it. Thanks...

There is another recent thread on this topic. Here is the link:

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...sured+motorist

What your agent told you is absolutely correct. In some states, UM insurance is mandatory, but not in Florida. I have never purchased UM insurance since moving to Florida. I consider it a waste of money.

I recently saw an article that seemed to indicate Florida had the highest percentage of uninsured motorist, so if you do not have thus coverage, I guess you will need to cover your own losses out of your pocket.

Thanks. Don't know how I missed it. Very interesting. My hubs is with you. Guess we'll drop it. Thanks again...

I would just correct something about what your agent said. Your car is already covered by your collision and comprehensive coverage. As far as mental anguish and "pain and suffering", if you want coverage for these, you better buy several millions in UM coverage because you will need a good lawyer to sue your insurance company and collect on it. If you only buy $100K to $200K, like most people do, a good lawyer would not even take the case.

Chance of getting in a catastrophic accident are not high. As a senior if you did have a bad accident, your chances of dying are higher. If so, your spouse would get all of the proceeds if you were injured badly in an accident and if the responsible party did not have adequate insurance. Younger person=different story

Thanks...yeah. I think at some point I was confused about the car also and threw that in there. I kinda knew that. Just felt really dopey I insisted on the coverage. Big win for the hubs on this one, but I'm a fairly graceful loser!! :smiley: Truthfully, I'm a little annoyed with Villages Insurance that they never mentioned this. We are all pretty much retirees here and that little factoid (not needing it) would have been interesting. I hate jumping around every year, but I have asked them about lowering it annually. They told us Hyundai's (we have 2) were a big theft risk. That was actually true for a bit, but....This agent was a mail troller my hubs called and I am actually gonna change it to him. The Villages had more than a few years to tell me this. Thanks for weighing in.

Yep...thank you

It seems like more people here I know are injured in golf cart accidents than car.

It seems like more people here I've heard of are injured in golf cart accidents than car.

They get hit by a car and thrown out or make a hard turn and throw a passenger not wearing a seat belt head first into the curb.

The agent said that you do not need Unisured Motororist Coverage. I disagree. He could have also said that you do not need collision or comprehensive.

No no no, don't listen to the people that say skip the uninsured and under insured motorist coverage. I was an insurance agent for forty years and we always added UM/UIM to the policy. With more and more drivers going around with no insurance or the state minimum coverage you need to carry UM/UIM. I have seen claims paid under both conditions and for the person that got into an accident that was not their fault and was suing the driver that was at fault which had no insurance it is nearly impossible to recover any money. Look if they don't bother to carry insurance you can bet they don't have many assets to go after. Look at the premium for the UM/UIM and decide is it worth it to have protection in a law suit if the at fault drive does not carry insurance or his insurance is inadequate? You buy auto insurance to protect you from liability claim in case you make an error in driving and you get sued. Why in the world would you not want to have the same coverage if the other driver makes an error and you are busted up and can no longer do the same functions that you did before the accident. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish, enough said!

One of the common misconceptions about uninsured motorist insurance is that it provides personal liability protection for yourself. It doesn't provide any protection at all. That is why you need personal liability insurance for yourself, but you don't need UM insurance.

I read recently that 25% of Florida drivers have no auto insurance period. UM is a must in my opinion.

For what exactly? What will it cover that you don't have? Not being a smart A...just asking because I'm curious. What will it provide me that I don't have?

Medicare lien
 

If Medicare covers you for injuries due to an accident, just remember if you are suing someone for damages for your injuries, Medicare and your supplemental will place a lien on your settlement to get reimbursed for money Medicare paid your healthcare providers . Also the Veterans administration general council will place a lien on your settlement and you will need to
appeal and prove any any treatment not related to treatment of your injuries due to your accident. A real hassle. Maybe consider keeping uninsured motorists insurance. You can’t double dip .

UM coverage.
 

I was a claims adjuster and I buy UM coverage it is the only insurance you buy that pays for your loss, your injury, your damages etc. Liability you buy to pay for other people’s damage and injury. I was an adjuster and there are more and more uninsured motorists everyday. With immigration problem there is likely to be uninsured drivers than insured in the near future. If you drive a car, I would advise you to get the coverage..cars aren’t cheap, if you get in an accident with a uninsured driver who will pay for your car, towing, ambulance ride etc.

NEED coverage ?
 

Any insurance sales person who tells you that you don’t “ need “ any particular coverage should be sure that they have a great Errors and Omissions policy. They could tell you that you do not have to purchase that coverage by state law and should fully describe the coverage to allow you to make the decision.

Well...40 years ago, I would have agreed. Last week I probably agreed. Now, I've been told something I didn't realize and I'm looking at it differently. I don't need the "loss of income"...nothing will change there. I don't need the medical coverage. I already have (and pay for) that. And my vehicle is covered, right?

My husband was hit years ago while on his bike by an uninsured driver who owned nothing but an old truck. After 3 surgeries putting rods in his legs and reconstructing
his hips, my husband walked with a bad limp the rest of his life. We had uninsured motorist coverage, yes they pay even if you are riding a bike or walking. Our attorney sued our insurance company. Our insurance company paid all the medical expenses, over $400,000, he got $480,000 for pain and suffering, he will never be the same physically, and the attorney got $350,000 and that was 21 years ago. I would never go without uninsured motorist coverage anywhere, especially here in Florida. The accident was here. You need a lot more than just your current medical bills covered. You always think you will never need insurance, until you do.

Sorry about the event, but an excellent example.
Thanks for sharing.

As always, "you" insure for what you can't afford.
Premiums are cheap, coverage could be great.

Insurance
 

Spot on IMHO…

UM/UIM is the most important insurance you can buy. Any agent who tries to talk an insured out of having it should be flayed alive or buried up to his/her neck in an ant hill.

Liability insurance benefits someone you injure and protects your assets against a claim by the injured person.

UM/UIM insurance protects you and your family by stepping into the place of the uninsured/underinsured driver and pays for your medical care, lost earnings, and pain and suffering. If your claim is not resolved by negotiation, it goes to arbitration. Most arbitrators, myself included, lean in favor of the insured, recognizing that he/she has paid for the coverage and is deserving of its benefits.

UM/UIM covers claims "arising out of the use of an automobile". Thus, if you are a pedestrian and hit by an auto, whether on a street or in a parking lot, you have coverage. If you are riding a bicycle and a person throws open a car door in your path, you're covered. The UM/UIM coverage is very broad. It covers you and members of your family not only in the vehicle you have insured, but in any vehicle in which you or a family member is a passenger. This gives you great comfort when your teenage child is out riding with his/her no-good friend or your aged parent who lives with you is riding with his/her half-blind friend.

Perhaps the greatest benefit is the Underinsured Motorist (UIM) coverage as you get to choose the amount of protection you want for yourself, your family, and your passengers. It covers your damages in excess of the limits of the person who injured you. Thus, if that person had the minimum limits of 15/30 and you have UM/UIM limits of $1M, you can recover up to $985,000 from your own carrier. During the years I was practicing law in California with its outrageous number of uninsured/underinsured drivers, illegal aliens, druggies, etc, I spent a great deal of time driving to/from courthouses and law offices on some of the most high-risk roads in the country. To protect myself and my family, I carried UM/UIM limits of $5M as, were I to be killed or disabled, the odds were that it would be while in an automobile. Of course, now that I am retired, our children grown, and we are financially secure, I have reduced those limits to $1M. For anyone who thinks I was being overly cautious, I should mention that I had a 34 year old partner with a non-working wife and two young children, who was killed by a drunk driver.

The worst thing about insurance agents is that they sell insurance by price and not by the needs of the insured. Thus, as the OP noted, the agent told him that he didn't need UM/UIM so as to reduce the premium he quoted. Other agents tell their clients that UM/UIM is "not required". If an insurance agent tells you this, stand up and leave his/her office immediately.

The agent also told the OP that Medicare would cover his medical expenses. While this is true, everyone our age knows that Medicare is limited, particularly as regards long-term care. For those who have chosen an Advantage plan, your choice of doctors is further limited. UM/UIM coverage is only limited by the amount of coverage you are willing to buy.

I'll close this diatribe by telling the saddest I handled. A very successful man was referred to me by his business attorney. The man's son was killed when a passenger in a car of college students returning home after final exams overturned when the driver fell asleep (a not uncommon accident for students returning to California from college in Nevada or Utah). The driver had the minimum limits of 15/30 which his carrier promptly paid. The father wanted me to recover what I could from his own insurer, which the father thought had limits of $Millions. He intended to fund a scholarship in his son's name with whatever I was able to obtain. It turned out that his insurance agent had him sign a form declining all UM/UIM coverage as it substantially reduced the premium and the agent was competing on price with another agent. While he was very successful in his business, the father knew little about insurance. I knew the offending agent. I cussed him out to his face and bad-mouthed him to everyone I could for the years I remained in practice.

REPLYING TO CP HUBBELL;

Please read my lengthy post above. The problem with suing an agent is twofold. First, he will have the insured sign a form either waiving UM/UIM coverage or acknowledging that he has chosen minimum limits for the UM/UIM coverage even though he has chosen liability coverage with higher limits. The second problem is that, legally, the agent is NOT an agent of the insured, but, rather, is an agent of the insurance company. Thus, in most states, unless the person purchasing insurance asks the agent for advice on UM/UIM coverage and is given advice upon which he acts, the agent has no liability. This is in contrast to an insurance broker who is acting on behalf of the person seeking insurance. Also, the law in some states is very harsh and the insured is bound by the "four corners" of the written policy and is obligated to read the policy. These are the reasons that I declined to sue the agent in the story about the rich man I relate above..

Thanks, I guess. Not even thinking about double dipping or suing. If I am compelled to sue someone and I have to reimburse Medicare and the Veterans admin (what they have to do with me I don't know) for any expenses they paid for me that would be the right thing to do, no? I don't have a problem with that.

To anyone who reads this RP please do not believe the opinions expressed therein. The RP can believe anything he wants; however, he poses a danger to anyone who acts on his opinions. Please read all the following posts, particularly those by the insurance agent; the claims adjuster; the woman whose husband was on a bicycle when hit by an uninsured driver; and mine.

Many thanks for not just an opinion, but facts. Appreciate your time.

I got it because I live in an area where there are a lot of drivers with little to no insurance. This is what my insurance sales rep told me. So I got a rather large uninsured motorist policy. Years later I was in an accident that required two surgeries and I used that policy.

That said, my health insurance paid for the surgeries originally. Then the health insurance required my car insurance policy to pay them back.

Plus, you are right. Your health insurance will cover your car accident.

Uninsured motorist coverage is a type of auto insurance that provides extra security to drivers who are hit by drivers who do not have any liability insurance coverage12345. In Florida, it is not mandatory to take out uninsured or underinsured motorist insurance, but auto insurers are obliged to offer it to you, and you have the option of turning it down1. Uninsured motorist coverage covers you if you suffer damages inflicted by a driver who was driving without insurance or who had too little insurance2. It is intended to provide you a backup source of recovery if you are harmed in a crash by someone without liability insurance at all or without enough coverage to cover your damages.

True only if you don't carry your own collision and personal injury insurance. IMO, Uninsured motorist only benefits the insurance company.

Before you decide to add UMI or drop the coverage, find out the cost. My UMI coverage costs $35 per month. Like any other insurance, you come to believe that it is not needed or a waste of money because you haven't had to use it. Then comes the day you get hit by an uninsured motorist and you wonder why you dropped it.

Most articles I have read about auto insurance recommend that you have $100K per person of uninsured motorist insurance. If you are depending on UM insurance to pay for your medical bills and to also pay for long term care and "pain and suffering" claims, how does that amount of coverage make any sense at all? To me, $100K is nowhere near an adequate amount of coverage. In many cases, it will not even cover the medical bills, which may be deducted from your UM claim, even if you have health insurance. So, for those who insist that everyone buy UM insurance, what limit of coverage do you actually have and do you really think that you are sufficiently covered?

A few questions. Many "experts" recommend a UM limit of $100K per person. How far will $100K get you in paying for medical bills, lost earnings, and pain and suffering? How many people, who have UM coverage, buy a limit of $5 million, or even $1 million, and what is their premium? And, what insurance company will sell you UM coverage of $5 million as part of a regular auto policy? When I was shopping for auto insurance, GEICO would only sell me a personal liability limit of up to $250K. I didn't even ask about UM.

Umbrella Policy
 

You buy the basic insurance as the primary policy. The primary policy will be more expensive as it has many obligations, such as paying all of the fees of the attorney it has to hire to defend you against all lawsuits, whether they are frivolous or not. Primary carriers have to investigate all claims, whether by you under the 1st party coverage or by a 3rd party against you. They have to pay all the "nuisance" settlements in the lawsuits filed by the hordes of attorneys, cranked out by our law schools in the last 50 years, for the clients who watch their TV ads. They also have had to pay for all the "free" roofs obtained by so many of our fellow residents.

You then buy an "umbrella" policy. This provides "excess" coverage above the limits of your primary policies, both homeowners and auto. Also, it provides some additional coverage for claims that are excluded from the primary policy, such as for libel, slander, trespass, false arrest, and assault and battery (the 'Umbrella" part"). Get into a p***ing contest with a litigious neighbor and you'll learn why you need an "umbrella". This insurance is relatively cheap as it seldom comes into play, and when it does, many of the expenses have been or will be paid by the primary carrier.

Carriers selling "umbrella" policies are like title insurance companies. They always have ONE horror story where they had to pay out money, thereby saving an insured from ruin.

Since retiring, I have a primary policy with limits of 100/300, including UM/UIM, with an "umbrella" that raises both limits to $1M. I'm not sure that is enough; however, I don't drive as much as in the past; I don't have a litigious neighbor; and, my beautiful wife is certain to be a sought-after widow.

Thanks. I am familiar with umbrella policies. But as a practical matter, most people do not buy an umbrella policy, so they are living with totally inadequate coverage that was recommended to them by an insurance "agent".

I had an umbrella policy years ago. I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that it only covered personal liability, not a "pain and suffering" claim under UM insurance, which doesn't involve any personal liability. I say this because I only had to increase my home and auto liability limits to qualify for the umbrella policy.

In reviewing several articles describing umbrella policies, they define it as a personal liability policy. But, a UM claim for pain and suffering would not involve any personal liability of the insured. Are you sure that a typical umbrella policy would pay a UM claim for pain and suffering where you are not being sued? I am trying to understand what an umbrella policy will cover other than your own liability.

If you want your car AND your “body” covered you must carry uninsured bodily injury AND uninsured property damage.

The correct answer is #23
 

I've enjoyed reading this thread. Post #23 pretty much covers it all. I've spent over 25 years on the bench and I can't tell you how many times I've seen litigants look back with regret on what they "should have done." All of us spend a ton of cash on insurance every year. We insure our homes, our health, our lives, our cars, etc. At some point it's natural to want to cut a corner or two. After all, why pay this year for something we have never used in the past? My house didn't burn down last year, so why buy insurance this year? For your sake, and the sake of your loved ones, don't give in to the temptation...you've made it this far in life, and you shouldn't risk your financial future on this issue. Spend the extra few bucks and sleep better.

Great comment Judge. The only person who will protect you and yours is yourself.

My 34 year old partner who was killed by a drunk driver left a non-working wife with no particular job skills, and two young sons. His family received the limits of the drunk's auto liability policy. Next they received the limits of his primary UM/UIM policy less the payment made by the drunk's carrier; the UM/UIM limits of his umbrella policy, the firm's group life insurance policy; Social Security; and, interestingly, Workers Compensation from our firm's WC carrier as he was in the "course and scope" of his employment at the time of the accident, attending a legal seminar in another state.

As for myself, the only life insurance I carried for many years was our group life. I was always healthy. If I had any concern about my health, it was the stress and strains of a litigation practice, particularly arguing with judges who didn't see matters my way. Instead, I spent my insurance dollars on auto insurance with high limits for both liability and UM/UIM, and an umbrella with even higher limits. I reasoned that I was not likely to die of disease or a non-auto accident. Instead, I was more likely to be seriously injured or killed in an auto accident at the hands of an uninsured/underinsured driver given that our practice covered a large part of Central California which had large numbers of migrant farm workers and other poor people with little or no liability insurance. With the passage of years, our son's completion of grad school, and the shifting of the workload to the firm's younger attorneys, I increased the life insurance while maintaining the large UM/UIM limits. With retirement, I dropped the life insurance and severely reduced the UM/UIM limits.

Being in a small town, I walked both sides of the street and represented both claimants and insureds. For the last third of my years in practice, I spent the majority of my time on insurance coverage issues. As with my story of the rich man whose agent sold him a large auto policy with no UM/UIM coverage, I encountered numerous instances of bad acts by an insurance agent. For anyone that has even the slightest concern about the coverage he/she is being sold, my advice is to consult another company's agent or, preferably, an insurance broker who serves as your "agent" and not the insurance company's.

Your years in the business have given you a great perspective, and your post was valuable to the thread. Glad that you are enjoying the fruits of your labor and I hope to be able to join you folks in TV in the near future.