Yes. Even if you have excellent health insurance coverage I believe that it is important to have as much Underinsured or Uninsured Motorist Coverage (UIM Coverage) as you can afford. This coverage protects you if the other driver didn’t have any insurance or not enough of it to pay for your injuries. Why is this coverage so important? Because a 1/3 of all Colorado drivers don’t have car insurance and most drivers in Colorado only have the State minimum liability coverage of $25,000.
For example, if you are like most people you probably have a health insurance plan with a high annual deductible and co-pays. If you get into a car accident with an uninsured driver your UIM coverage can cover your deductible, lost wages, unpaid medical bills, co-pays, pain and suffering and more. The same is true if the other driver only has the state minimum policy limits of $25,000.00 and your damages exceed that amount.
Unfortunately, all too often I meet with clients who were advised by their insurance agent that because they have health insurance they don’t need UIM coverage. Either insurance agents don’t understand what they are selling or they don’t sell it because they can’t make any money from it. Either way it is bad advice.
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[...]If I have health insurance do I need UIM Coverage with my car insurance? | Law Journal – O'Sullivan Personal Injury Lawyer[...]…
Yes you definitely should have UIM Coverage even if you do have health insurance and you should get as much UIM insurance as you can afford. I tell all motorcycle riders that they should get at least a minimum of $100,000.00 in UIM coverage.
There are several reasons why, especially if you are a motorcycle rider.
First, if you were to get into an severe motorcycle accident (that wasn’t your fault) and you can’t return to work for months or even years you would have a large lost wages claim in addition to all your other damages. And let’s assume that the at-fault driver had either no insurance (1/3 of Colorado drivers have no insurance) or has the state minimum coverage of $25,000.00 and you decided to waive UIM coverage. Under the above scenario you would be completely upside down because there wouldn’t be enough insurance to cover all of your losses. In this type of case (which I unfortunately see all the time) the accident victim definitely needed and could have used UIM coverage to help cover all of his lost wages and medical bills.
Second, in Colorado your health insurance company has the right to subrogation in the event that you get money from the at-fault party. This means is they have the right to get paid back the money they spent on your medical bills as a result of the accident. So if you assume the above scenario you would still need UIM coverage because the health insurance company is going to want a portion of their money back. There is a new Colorado law that can help in this type of scenario and potentially eliminate the health insurance companies right to reimbursement. But, it doesn’t apply to all health insurance plans.
So yes you do need UIM coverage and you should buy as much as you can afford. This is equally true for car insurance as well as motorcycle insurance.
The point of hiring a personal injury lawyer in a severe motorcycle accident or car accident case is so that they can fight the at-fault driver’s insurance company, reduce or eliminate your health insurance’s subrogation right and get the most money you deserve.