Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Changes to minimum coverage

Recently, the minimum coverage level we’ve discussed above has changed. The mandatory minimum level of coverage everyone must have to operate on the road in the state of Nevada has increased, reflecting rises in the cost of healthcare, the cost of repairs and replacement of property, and the general cost of living.

In 2017, the Nevada senate passed Senate Bill 308, which effectively raised the minimum requirements on all vehicle liability insurance policies. The new law took effect on July 1, 2018, and saw the requirement rise from $15,000 personal injury cover per individual to $25,000, from $30,000 total personal injury liability per incident to $50,000 (the two-person limit remained the same), and from $10,000 property damage liability to $20,000.

To prepare for the changes, many insurance providers in Nevada stopped offering 15/30/10 insurance to their customers, even before the beginning of July 2018. Any driver who still held a 15/30/10 was effectively in violation of Nevada law and was required to purchase a new insurance policy to reflect the changes. However, some insurance providers simply upgraded their coverage, charging a higher premium as a result. Insurance providers were required to notify their customers before this was implemented, although customers would not be able to opt out of this minimum requirement.

This has important implications for drivers. Firstly, it means that no one should have been caught unaware by the recent changes — i.e. all drivers should have been notified of the changes to their policies, and these changes should have been implemented automatically. In other words, all drivers should automatically have the minimum coverage. Secondly, it means that the minimum insurance is more likely to cover all of the expenses incurred by the innocent party, so underinsured driver cases should become less frequent in the state of Nevada.

Limitations to Medicare coverage and private health insurance

If you are injured in an accident and need to receive medical treatment, your private health insurance or Medicare coverage may provide some protection, even if the injuries were caused by another driver. This is sometimes used as a way to eliminate the risk of a shortfall if the driver at fault was uninsured or underinsured. However, this may have its own limitations also.

For instance, you may not be able to claim for some medical expenses on your Medicare policy or your private health cover. Not all policies will provide cover for treatments that are considered ‘alternative’, such as acupuncture. These treatments are not backed by the whole of the medical community, so they may be excluded from some health cover policies – even though some patients do report positive results from treatments such as acupuncture.

Another factor to bear in mind is the deductible. This is the amount you will need to cover out of your own pocket before the insurance policy kicks in to cover the remainder. Some insurance providers require the policyholder to pay one or two thousand dollars before the treatment becomes eligible for coverage.

Additional costs that may fall outside of UM/UIM coverage

There may be other medical expenses that are difficult to quantify. For example, if you are already receiving medical treatment and you believe this condition has been exacerbated by an accident that wasn’t your fault, it may be difficult to prove that this additional expense was a direct result of the incident in question.

Psychological trauma and the resulting treatment may also be difficult to link directly to the accident. However, increasing understanding of mental health issues and psychological conditions may make this easier in the future, as doctors are able to diagnose problems directly and recommend the proper course of treatment.

If you are forced to miss work due to an accident that wasn’t your fault, you may want to claim damages for these lost earnings. In fact, if you have suffered any sort of inconvenience as a result of the accident, you might wish to pursue compensation. These extra expenses may not be covered by the minimum 25/50/20 insurance policy of the other driver and may not be covered by comprehensive policies and UM/UIM insurance either. This can leave drivers out of pocket, even though the accident was not their fault.