.
KW:It has been pointed out to me by people who study the healthcare issue and the insurance issue, that many of the high costs of car insurance could be addressed by the seemingly tangential issue of health care/health insurance.
The reason that car insurance premiums are so high, is that if someone gets hurt in a car accident, the driver, or the state’s “no fault insurance” program, has to pay for their hospital bills.
If we had the more efficient, secure system, that everyone was already covered for health care, that everyone received it automatically, paid for by the government, than car insurance would only have to cover property damage, the cost of your own car and any car you might hit.
Just one more reason to advocate for single-payer (that part is important), universal health care.
Here is a Newsday story that shows that due to the economic crisis, without proactive measures like passing single-payer health insurance, then our country is going to have more and more problems. In this case, many more driver’s uninsured, many more ways for people to fall through the cracks of insurance, and many more bills when government has to pull up the slack…
(excerpt from) Newsday
Recession will mean more uninsured motorists, report finds
by Tom Incantalupo / January 21, 2009
An insurance research group forecast Wednesday that fallout from the recession would lead to an increase in the number of motorists driving uninsured – to more than 1 in 6 by next year.
That would be in addition to what state regulators and insurance firm investigators said has been an increase in insurance fraud resulting from the recession and last year’s high gas prices – in the form of pre-arranged “thefts” of cars and vehicle arsons by owners – to collect insurance payments.
Wednesday’s report, from the Pennsylvania-based Insurance Research Council, a not-for-profit group funded by the insurance industry, said the percentage of insured motorists usually rises with the unemployment rate and that it expected that 16.1 percent of motorists would be uninsured next year – the highest since the late 1980s and up from 13.8 percent in 2007…
Filed under: Healthcare, New York State Politics, News, progressive politics, social & economic justice Tagged: | automobiles, car insurance, economic crisis, insurance, Single Payer, unemployed, universal healthcare
Ian, you know better than this…. Your auto insurance covers medical benefits and property damage, but it also covers wage replacement benefits and 3rd party claims for serious physical injury. Even in accidents where there have been surgical procedures you are looking at medical bills of maybe $15,000 covered by No Fault Fee Schedules and a liability claim worth $45K to $150K (anywhere from 3X to 10X medical special damages. The top exposure of no fault benefits is typically $50K unless you have additional Personal Injury Protection (PIP), which can boost you to $100K in accident medical loss coverage (this should get you through a severe hospitalization as well as after care)
An person injured in an accident is also entitled to $1,8000 a month in wage replacement (1st party benefits) depending upon how long the claimant is out of work.
The highest exposure against the policy holder is represented by the 3rd party claims. Actually, this excerpt is total nonsense because the government even in socialized medicine will continue to be the payor of last resort, and you will still have no fault coverage for accidental losses. This system would be so incredibly expensive that they would look for other places to shift care coverage.
The government will not be able and will not want to absorb the costs of workplace (workers comp) and automobile accidents. They will have to shift some of the costs back onto employers or onto other forms of 1st party accident insurance. Or they will have to be subrogated to the extent of the victim’s recovery. So you will see aggressive attempts by the government to recoup losses spent on patients like you may see with medicaid liens or even 1st party law suits if they discover someone has an asset or an inheritence which can be liened. These claims by the government even in the current medicaid context can be very injust.
Nothing in life is free.
Hey, Dan.
Thanks for the comments.
This is Kimberly. I made that post. Sorry for the confusion. I just use the wilderside icon all the time.
Thanks for your information.
Yes, there are other parts of car insurance.
But, some is medical. And, I think that Single-Payer, Universal Healthcare will help with that.
Also, SPUHC will end some government bureacracies such as: Workman’s Comp (because medical bills will be paid); Medicaid; etc.
I was wondering. I see that you had a lot of information on the specifics of car insurance. And, you wanted to clarify that SPUHC won’t solve all of the problem.
But, do you oppose Single-Payer, Universal Healthcare?
And, if so, why? If you don’t mind saying. Interested in hearing people’s opinions.
Thanks again for the info.
[…] Car insurance problems. The answer: single-payer, universal health care […]