In the US your home and auto insurance can pay for someone else’s medical bills who gets injured in your home or by your car. In the US, medical bills are ridiculous so insurance coverage must be high enough to cover paying these bills.
How does it work in countries where the injured party is covered by national health insurance and doesn’t get a bill from the hospital or gets a small reasonable bill? How do home/auto insurance payouts work and is it cheaper to be insured in those countries?
Auto insurance requires coverage that will cover the cost of repairs to the person’s car you smash into, as well as their injuries. Advise that you get a million coverage at minimum to cover peoples inability to earn, extended recovery periods etc.
Similar for home insurance. One needs to have coverage for when a person stubs their toe (or worse) while walking up your path to request that you subscribe to The Watchtower.
Basic injuries may be covered by government health, but it’s never that simple. Some will squeeze you for more and that’s why you require insurance. It can be a lot if an injured person will require long term care. A lot of extended care doesn’t fall under basic government health care.
Cost can vary by insurance company, location of insured, a persons claims history, age . . .
You’re required to have third party insurance if you run a car in the UK. The NHS has a scheme for recovering from insurance companies some of their costs for treating RTA victims, but non-medical care, home adaptations and so on aren’t the NHS’s responsibility, so there might well be separate claims on the insurance companies for those.
UK Home Insurance does not typically cover personal injury. Here’s one of the leading providers where you can see what’s covered:
I have pretty comprehensive building and contents insurance on a 3 bed house which costs £28 per month.
You can also check the same link above for their car insurance. All their comprehensive cover options include £5k personal injury cover, which is just a lump sum if you have a life-changing injury. It’s not there to cover medical bills, which we obviously don’t have. I can’t see anything about protecting yourself from third party medical expenses but I’m guessing that may be part of the general cover. FYI, I pay £24 per month for fully comprehensive insurance. Mainly because I’m a middle aged woman.
Which country are we talking about here?
I’m in Canada, with single-payer and no-fault auto insurance. Between the two, anyone who is injured by my negligence is fully covered, so I don’t think they would have a claim for health care. The gov’t auto insurer used to be subrogated for medical expenses, but that was in the days before full no-fault, so I don’t think it exists any more. Could be wrong on that.
UK car insurance always covers third-party liabilities, including any medical and other expenses arising from a collision for which you are deemed responsible. In some cases, the non-medical expenses can be considerable. Consider the case of a young professional (doctor, lawyer, plumber) who is rendered incapable of pursuing their intended career - the potential loss of earnings could be very high.
All buildings open to the public, and all places of employment carry similar insurance. When I was injured at work, the ambulance and subsequent treatment by the NHS were straightforward and I never saw any bills (if there were any). Followup physio and a report from a consultant on prognosis were paid for by my employer’s insurance, as was my loss of earnings.
There have been reported cases where a burglar injures themselves in the course of a burglary and subsequently claims damages. The Brendon Fearon/Tony Martin case is one that comes up but it was never thrashed out in court. Who did Tony Martin shoot and why was the Norfolk farmer jailed?
My home insurance covers me against any claim by visitors who are injured on my property.
Your legal liability as owner of the buildings, including the land
belonging to the buildings (and any private house previously
owned and occupied or leased and occupied by you) following:
l accidental death, bodily injury, illness or disease suffered by
any person; and/or
l loss of or damage to property.
If you die, we will cover your legal personal representatives in
respect of your legal liability.
This includes any claimant costs and expenses arising
from any one accident. We will also pay defence costs and
expenses, which we agree to in writing.
This cover is a cheap add-on to standard home insurance.
So in the UK your insurance has to pay for the expenses incurred by the NHS for medical treatment?
Expenses other than those in A&E, I think.
I think it counts as accumulated flat rate contributions, rather than a fully itemised individual bill.
In the US your private medical insurance will try to recoup expenses which might be covered by other insurance - workplace injuries, auto accidents, etc. If I have a medical claim which might be accident-related (like a broken bone) I get a questionnaire from my insurance asking if the injury was from an accident caused by someone else.
I don’t know if Medicare/Medicaid does the same, I would be surprised if they didn’t.
Yeah. I was just wondering about the costs, since actual costs for medical care in the US is so much more than that in other countries regardless of who is paying it. So I was wondering if the cost to provide non-medical insurance in other countries is less since the possible resulting medical costs are lower.
They do - my mother was injured and filed a lawsuit which is now being settled and Medicare will recoup everything it paid for her treatment (and will not pay for future treatment). Her case isn’t the sort where fault is obvious and I assume that why Medicare initially paid.
When I was injured at work, I filed a claim for compensation through a solicitor (backed by my home policy) against the employer’s insurance. They made a derisory offer and we said fine, take it to court. They improved the offer and (with fingers crossed) we suggested a settlement figure which they accepted.
Very few of these cases actually go to court, since lawyers can cost more than a settlement. It has been known for it to go right to the brink with an agreement on “the steps of the court”.
Costings are not absolute. In the UK NHS, everything works by block budgeting - services get a sum of money for the year and do the best they can with it. In the US, AIUI, services will bill what they think the market will bear (and will adjust according to the resistance they encounter). In either case, what any given individual’s care “really” costs isn’t that obvious.
In Quebec, all coverage for personal injury is covered by the auto insurance board, which doubles as the motor vehicle bureau and deals with licences, etc. I pay something like $700 for my tags, most of which is the insurance premium. I have separate coverage for 3rd party damages (a few hundred a year) and, if I choose, collision which depends on the value of my car, currently tiny.
That’s interesting. I pay £240 a year as “car tax” (sliding scale starting at £0 - mine is towards the higher end) plus £350 for fully comprehensive insurance which covers damage to my car or a third party (including property) and claims for injury from third parties up to £10m.
There are other benefits like replacement cars and transport home etc as well. It also includes breakdown cover through the AA.