Protect Yourself with Underinsured Motorist Coverage
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North Carolina law requires that every motor vehicle be covered with at least $30,000 of liability insurance. However, with the high cost of medical care, in many cases $30,000 just is not enough.
You should therefore protect you and your family from loss caused by a negligent driver with inadequate insurance coverage. This protection is afforded by purchasing underinsured motorist coverage.
Underinsured motorist coverage provides that, in the event you or another occupant of your car are injured by a negligent driver, there will be sufficient insurance coverage to pay the full amount of the damage done. The underinsured motorist coverage is added to your own liability insurance policy.
With this underinsured motorist coverage, if the negligent driver does not have sufficient liability insurance, your own insurance policy will pay the difference between your total damages and the amount of coverage on the negligent driver's vehicle. Take the case of an injury from a collision which results in damages to you of $200,000.00. If the negligent driver has only a $30,000.00 liability insurance policy, and you have $100,000.00 underinsured motorist coverage, your own insurance company will step in and pay $70,000.00, the difference between the limit of your own underinsured policy and the negligent driver's $30,000.00 liability policy.
Because your underinsured policy will only pay up to the limit of insurance you buy, you want to be sure that your underinsured motorist coverage is high enough to cover you and your family from the most serious injuries imaginable. We recommend that each vehicle be covered by an underinsured policy of at least $1,000,000.00.
It is not at all unusual to incur a hospital bill in excess of $100,000.00, even with a relatively short hospital stay. Without adequate insurance, many doctors and hospitals are less inclined to give a patient the full care they may need. If your doctors and hospital know that there is adequate insurance coverage, that knowledge will go a long way towards ensuring that you will obtain the best medical care possible.
Underinsured motorist coverage is relatively cheap. This is particularly true for increments in excess of $100,000.00.
We urge you to call your insurance agency today to review your automobile insurance policy. Ask your agent how much extra it would cost you for a million dollar underinsured motorist policy. We think you will be surprised at how inexpensive it is. You should buy this level of insurance today. You will be glad that you did.