To a degree, your husband is right. Uninsured motorist coverage often does provide duplicate coverage on top of other insurance you may have.

However, a $500 to $1,000 deductible on collision coverage is now common, and most health insurance policies have deductibles and/or co-pays. If your own health and collision insurance policiies have to pay for your losses, you have to pay all of those deductibles, and in the event of a major loss, they could be fairly substantial.

For these reasons, and because uninsured and underinsured motorist's coverage is usually pretty cheap, most people go ahead and take this coverage.

You also need to check your health insurance policy. It may contain a couple different clauses which are very common: 1) it will not pay for bills related to an accident caused by another person or 2) it will pay the bills BUT if you receive a settlement or benefits from the at-fault driver's insurance policy, your health plan will require reimbursement of the bills paid.
Also, let's say you need chiropractic or physical therapy care...some health policies (many) put a limit as to the number of visits they will pay for. So even if they don't have the reimbursement clause(s) as stated above, you will be stuck paying for some of your care and those visits can be expensive! If you have medpay or no fault coverage, that may pay for some.
Also, to the best of my knowledge (I may be wrong!) Underinsured/Uninsured Motorists (UM/UIM) coverage does not cover property damage/collision; it's for bodily injuries only. Someone who works in auto insurance can correct me if I'm wrong on that.
UM/UIM coverage really doesn't cost that much more to add to a policy and with all the uninsured and UNDER insured drivers out there nowadays, it's worth the small amount extra to get it. I work in the insurance/personal injury field....trust me...there are a LOT of people out on the road with no or little coverage!
Just my opinion. I would call your agent and just ask them for quote to add that type of coverage to policy.

Uninsured motorists? Are we talking about folks who are driving illegally?

I'm from a state where if you don't have insurance, you can't get a registration or license plate for your vehicle. And if you are caught trying to pull a fast one, you go to jail.

Are there states where people are permitted to legally drive automobiles without insurance? And if yes, WHY ???

In GA, you must be insured to drive. But that doesn't stop uninsured people from driving a car. And if they are pulled over or get into a wreck they will be fined, and if they have a driver's license, it will probably be revoked or suspended. But that's only if they get caught.

Another angle: We were rear-ended by a seriously drunk driver a few years back. She was in a rentacar. Of course, the fault was hers so our insurance agent started working with the insurance agent of the rental company because she had paid for their insurance.

But the rental car insurance has a clause in their contract that states, if an accident occurs and the driver is proven to be under the influence, this insurance is null and void.

So our uninsured motorist coverage had to pay for our damages. Then our insurance company sued the motorist at fault, but we don't see the outcome of that. Chances are they won but never got any money, since the girl went back to jail (she had just been released and had only had a license back for a couple of days when she hit us). Thank goodness we were uninjured but our car was pretty bad off. She hit us very hard, as she didn't even apply her brakes before she hit.

TREKaren,

How were you health-wise after that accident?

I hope that it did not cause long-term pain or impairment.

joyful

Brewbeer, Having just spent 3 days in Durham NC traffic court, I did a check on my uninsured motorist coverage. In 3 days, I'll wager there were over 400 people in court for being w/o insurance and/or driver's license. And many of them were caught because they were either drunk or caused an accident, or both. And those were only the people who were caught! So yes, it's illegal here, but that doesn't mean people don't do it. Murder is illegal too, but over 18,000 people are murdered in the US every year. I'm Ok with my coverage, but I'm glad I checked it.

Ed,
Where have you been? :-)

We were fine, DH and I were uninjured. We had our seatbelts on, which we were very glad of.

As far as it being illegal to drive without insurance, of course it's illegal but thousands do it every day. I was rear-ended by an insured motorist in 1983 who presented the policeman with an insurance card that was out of date and she somehow got away with it. I gues he never looked close enough at the card. My insurance company had to go after her and I got a letter that she settled with them, but that is very unusual.

My brother was driving in Kentucky, Georgia and Florida with no driver's license and no insurance. Georgia held his license because he got a DUI while here and he could not get a license in the state of Kentucky for that reason (good for Kentucky and Georgia!) He was lucky that he never got caught or he never hurt anyone, as he's an alcoholic. He doesn't drive anymore to put your mind at ease but he would if he wasn't sick. It's amazing what you can get away with in the good ole USA.

I am glad someone asked this question. We pay $30 extra a month for uninsured motorist coverage and I am thinking about canceling it because I do feel like it is duplicate coverage. I am also unemployed right now, so the $30 could pay my water or phone bill every month. Now I am having second thoughts. Guess I will call Allstate and inquire about this.

I sure appreciate everyone's responses. Hubby as decided to forego the insurance.

LizaLou

i missed the start (and finish) of this but would still like to add my .02 if thats ok...
i was in a serious accident back in '89 and through trial it was decided that the b*#^@%# that caused the accident was "half or less" at fault as was the driver of the car i was in. based on that decision the insurance of the driver that hit us was off the hook as was the driver personally.
(i maintain, to this day, the guy was DUI - after pulling someones head of of the windsheild i tunerd on him and before my pain registered and i dropped and could smell liquor -or maybe pot, it was sweet - from about arms length, on him)
anyway, consultations, office visits, surgery, physical therapy, pain meds, pain management centers and cortisone shots for several years cost a *lot* - and our regular health insurance did not cover a lot of it
oh, the guy was not personally insured (NH - don't have to) we had under insured/uninsured insurance and were able to recoup close to 1/2 of the medical bills.
for the relatively small increase we paid, it paid off.

I am on medicare and have a good supplemental ins.coverage
so I have been wondering why should I have to carry uninsured coverage.My agent told me that I have it when I was working and needed this coverage mostly for lost wages and pain and suffering,but now I am retired and not working and am covered by by good med. ins, why should keep this coverage.It seems like a waste.

Uninsured motorist covers cars etc and not medical insurance for you. You probably have some type of disability coverage, either long or short term. If you do some only replaces salary and not retirement income. Talk to your agent about what the insurance covers. If your agent was aware when you retired and the policy only covers loss of income while working you may be able to reclaim any premiums. It would have been better to start a new thread rather than open a 6 year old thread.

Car insurance varies from state to state. Some states insure the car, others the driver.