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Have you ever wondered why on earth anyone would ever want to hit the highways without car insurance? Think about it. There are over 6 million accidents in the United States every year. If you can get out of the repair shop with a bill of less than four digits before the decimal point you're lucky. If there's a hospital stay involved that can add twenty or thirty thousand dollars to your bill. Insurance will take care of most of that bill for you, but what would you do without insurance there to act as a safety net?
Now put that shoe on the other foot. Unless you have no-fault insurance coverage you're depending on the driver who caused your accident to pick up the tab for the repairs. What are you going to do if they don't have car insurance?
Before you vilify those drivers for not having insurance, remember that a huge percentage of today's American population is living on an income that's less than poverty level. That means that they're struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. The hundred dollars or so they're saving every month by not having car insurance might make the difference between eating and going to bed hungry.
Ours is not to question why people would want to drive without car insurance, ours is just to figure out what on earth we're going to do about it if they run into us! Murphy's Law being what it is, it's almost inevitably that sooner or later these drivers are going to be involved in an accident. If you're the one behind the wheel of the car they hit you're going to be the one paying the price for their decisions.
Yes, it's all well and good to say that these drivers should be held responsible for the expenses of their choice to drive without insurance, but think about it for a moment. If they can't afford to pay the monthly premiums on their car insurance, which often total less than $150 a month, how long do you think it's going to take them using a court appointed payment plan to pay thousands of dollars in damages?
Today's car insurance providers have figured out the solution. For an almost negligible addition to your monthly premiums you can add uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage to your insurance plan. That means that if you happen to be the victim of an accident involving an uninsured driver, or one who has pared down their insurance coverage so far that it won't cover the cost of your expenses, your car insurance company will pay for your repairs.
With uninsured motorist coverage on your car insurance policy you can get your car back on the road, and your life back to normal, as quickly as possible without having to hope and pray that whoever hit you has a rich aunt that's going to be willing to pay the cost of their accident. Somehow, it never really works out that way.