When you’re looking for ways to lower your auto insurance premium, reducing Medical Payments coverage may seem like an easy place to start. You already have health insurance. You’re a careful driver. Would you really miss it?
Before making that change, it helps to understand what you would be giving up—and how this coverage can protect you even when you’re nowhere near your own car.
What does Medical Payments coverage cover?
Medical Payments coverage, often called “Med Pay” or Medical Expense Benefits in Virginia, helps pay reasonable and necessary medical expenses following a covered motor vehicle accident, up to the applicable coverage limit.
Covered expenses can include ambulance services, emergency treatment, hospital care, surgery, dental treatment, chiropractic care, and rehabilitation. Funeral expenses may also be covered. In Virginia, covered expenses generally must be incurred within three years of the accident.
One valuable feature: coverage applies regardless of who caused the accident. You do not have to establish that another driver was at fault for Med Pay to respond to a covered injury.
The protection can follow you outside your car
Many people assume this coverage applies only when they are driving their own vehicle. Its reach can be broader.
Subject to your policy’s terms, Med Pay can help protect:
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- You and your passengers if injured while riding in your insured vehicle.
- You and qualifying family members if injured while riding in another person’s vehicle.
- You and qualifying family members struck by a motor vehicle while outside a vehicle, such as when walking, jogging, crossing a parking lot, or riding a bicycle.
Imagine being struck by a car while crossing the street, or your child being hit by a vehicle while riding a bike. Your auto policy’s medical expense coverage may matter in situations you would never think of as a “car accident” involving your own car.
“But I already have health insurance.”
Health insurance is valuable, but having it does not make Med Pay unnecessary. Deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance can still leave you with out-of-pocket expenses after an accident. Med Pay can help with those eligible costs. Virginia law also recognizes medical expense benefits for qualifying expenses paid by health insurance, so its value is not necessarily limited to what you owe out of pocket.
And remember your passengers. A friend, neighbor, or carpool companion may have very different health insurance—or none at all. Med Pay can provide benefits for covered passengers in your vehicle, too.
Look at the protection before the savings
We understand the desire to keep insurance costs manageable. But a lower premium deserves a closer look when it comes with less protection for you, your family, and your passengers.
Before reducing Med Pay, ask us to compare the actual premium savings with the coverage you would lose. If the savings are only a few dollars, consider whether that money would meaningfully improve your budget—and whether you would be comfortable taking on more medical expenses after an accident.
At Hanckel-Citizens Insurance, we encourage clients to preserve meaningful protection. Before you lower your coverage, let’s talk through what it does for you. Our job is to help you make an informed decision about both the cost of your policy and the protection behind it.
This article focuses on Virginia personal auto insurance. Coverage is subject to the terms, conditions, limits, and exclusions of your policy.
