Selecting The Right Automobile Insurance
Managed health care and underinsurance are the two key factors which you must be aware of in making your selection of automobile insurance in New York State.
The new managed health care program that auto insurers are offering is a restrictive managed care program through which the insurance company will dictate with which "company doctor" you may treat with and how long you can treat for.
This program, designed to save a car owner only about $10 but the insurance company millions, will hurt drivers and their families in that insurance company administrators will decide if the injured car owner requires the use of a specialist, a diagnostic test or specialized therapy. Non-physicians, and not you, will decide your course of treatment. You lost the right to choose what doctor, hospital or clinic will treat you when you are hurt in a car accident. The insurance company will decide how soon the doctors will stop the treatment. If an injured person needs to go to another doctor who is not part of the managed care plan, it will cost the injured person up to $2,500 out of their own pocket.
Car owners must read the fine print when they renew their car insurance policies that are traditionally loaded with fine print. No one should lose their right to choose their doctor by being stuck with this disastrous managed care option.
The second factor, underinsurance , is your protection in the event that you are injured by another vehicle which has insufficient coverage. If you have uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, you may look to your own insurance carrier to recover up to the extent of your underinsured coverage. Underinsurance motorist coverage is also known as " Supplementary Underinsured Motorist Coverage " or "SUM" coverage.
SUM is very important because in New York a substantial amount of drivers carry the minimum automobile insurance coverage and hundreds of thousands of drivers are totally without insurance. Unfortunately, an individual with better than minimum coverage, if involved in an accident with a driver who is uninsured or who has a minimum policy, will be only entitled to $25,000 as compensation for any injuries they sustain in the accident. However, the person they get into the accident with has $100,000 available as compensation.
SUM coverage is relatively inexpensive. However, unfortunately only approximately 5% of people with insured vehicles in New York now carry SUM coverage. You must check to ensure that you SUM coverage is as high as your liability coverage.
To see whether or not you have SUM coverage, you can call your individual insurance broker or look at the face sheet or declaration page of your insurance policy. If you have any questions about SUM coverage or wish for our attorneys to look at your policy to see whether or not you have SUM coverage and whether or not your coverage is appropriate, please do not hesitate to contact the attorneys of Sanders, Sanders, Block, Woycik, Viener & Grossman, P.C.
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Automobile Accidents
