Does your regular health insurance pay for car accident injury care?

You may have great insurance to cover the costs of your car repair but not carry adequate medical coverage on your car insurance policy. Most people assume that health insurance will cover all of their medical expenses and it doesn't matter how they were injured.  This is not always the case, and your car insurance does have options that will take care of you if you are in an accident and need care.  If your car insurance is insufficient, you could be stuck without enough insurance to pay for your injuries at all. 

Car Insurance and Medical Expenses:

Here are some of the car insurance coverages that help with injuries after a car accident: 

1. Personal injury protection (PIP) coverage generally has a fairly low limit. It does pay for injuries occurring after an auto accident, but usually serves to augment the medical insurance policy that you have. It can basically help with your deductible and will only pay for a full doctor's visit if it is substantially low. 

2. Bodily injury liability pays for injuries that a person causes to another person. If you’re at fault for an accident, your insurance pays for the other person’s damages and injuries; the same is true in reverse whenever somebody else hits you. This coverage has no deductible and pays up to a limit. Once the limit is exhausted, no more funds will be sent out. 

3. Medical payments coverage is a first-party insurance like PIP, but it has higher limits and covers more expenses. Most start paying out up to $5,000 for each person in the car who have sustained an injury.  This coverage is for each accident, not annually. 

4. Uninsured and under-insured motorist coverages serve to replace bodily injury liability whenever a person is involved in an accident with someone who has no insurance or whose insurance is not high enough to cover the costs of the accident. 

Will my Health Insurance cover car accident injuries? 

Your medical insurance will pay for injuries only if no other insurance will cover the loss. This is true of all types of injuries. For example, a medical insurance company may refuse to treat an injury that happens while you’re at work until the company is sure you won’t be receiving any worker’s compensation. The same is true of car accidents. If you do not have car insurance or your insurance has no medical coverages, your health insurance company will most likely cover the cost of your injuries if you were the only person involved in the accident. If another person was involved in the collision, the health insurance company will wait to see if the other party is at fault and their insurance will cover your injuries.  Because most health insurance companies will not move forward with paying a claim until all other claims have been denied, it can take quite a while to have your medical expenses covered.  

Dr. Amie Gregory, DC, CCEP, ANF is a San Francisco, CA and San Carlos, CA chiropractor that understands full body health.  She works with car accidents injuries, athletes, expectant moms, office workers and everyone else in between.  Contact our San Francisco, CA chiropractic office or San Carlos, CA chiropractic office today!