Several states require minimum car insurance coverage amounts. You could make the argument that it’s a good idea. If every driver on the road in a particular state has mandated minimum coverage, that can go toward paying for accidents if and when they occur.
Massachusetts is one example of the many states that have such laws. If you drive there, you should know all about the state’s minimum coverage law details before you ever pull out of your driveway. Having this coverage can certainly save you a lot of legal trouble if you do happen to hit another vehicle or something else unexpected occurs.
Bodily Injury to Others
We’ll approach this topic by talking about each of the Massachusetts minimum coverage amounts that you must have. Bodily harm to others is a great kind of insurance to purchase, regardless of whether you’re driving in Massachusetts or another state. This insurance will help pay for medical bills if you hit someone with your vehicle.
The minimum amount you need to have in Massachusetts is $20,000 per accident victim or $40,000 per accident. This probably sounds like a lot, but if you consider how much medical bills can cost for a serious injury, it’s actually pretty reasonable. If you shop for car insurance in Massachusetts, you should be able to find rates for this coverage that are easily affordable.
Damage to Another Party’s Property
In Massachusetts, you need to have a minimum of $5,000 to cover damage to another individual’s property. That’s a fairly broad category. This money might come into play if your car veers off the road and strikes someone’s mailbox, for instance.
You might use this insurance if you hit someone’s house or garage. Maybe you run over their bike or skateboard, and you have to replace it. The more you consider it, the easier it is to come up with different ways you can damage someone’s property with your vehicle, and $5,000 worth of coverage is not going to cost you all that much.
Bodily Injury Caused by an Uninsured Driver
Like bodily injury to others, Massachusetts wants you to have a minimum of $20,000 per accident victim and $40,000 per each accident for bodily injury caused by an uninsured driver. The reason you want to have this insurance is that you might have a situation sometimes where another driver will hit you with their vehicle, and they will injure you or one of your passengers. Perhaps this person who hit you will not have any auto insurance at all.
If this happens, your insurance policy covers all or most of your medical bills that will come from this accident. The police will doubtless charge the other driver with driving without insurance and violating state law. This money might also cover lost wages or pain and suffering after the accident.
Personal Injury Protection
There is one final mandatory minimum insurance amount you need to have as a driver in Massachusetts. That is $8,000 in personal injury protection. The policy must cover $8,000 per accident victim.
Some insurance companies also call this type PIP insurance or no-fault insurance. It’s mandatory in some states but not in others. PIP insurance covers medical expenses after an accident, regardless of who is at fault.
How Much Does a Policy Cost that Covers All These Minimum Amounts?
When you look at all of these minimum amounts together, it’s easy to imagine that one insurance policy that covers all of them would be next to impossible to afford for the average working-class individual in Massachusetts. If you start shopping for policies there, though, you will actually find that is not the case.
There is no set amount that an insurance company might charge you in that state which covers the minimum in each category, but companies generally set these policies low enough that the average person can afford it. They have to, or else no one would drive in Massachusetts at all.
The average Massachusetts policy that covers only the state-mandated minimum and nothing else right now is $42.50 per month. That comes out to about $510 per year.
Again, that’s only the minimum amount the state requires, not counting any additional car insurance types. Several more exist that we did not cover in this article. The amount for a full coverage policy with all the bells and whistles is $1,223 per year, on average.
Now, you know what it takes to drive in Massachusetts.
