In the last few blogs, I have discussed the importance of knowing what and how much coverage you have by requesting your declarations page. Once you get a copy of your Dec Page, it is also important to know what the types and amounts of coverages on that page actually means. We have covered property damageand liability coverage.Let's talk about medical payments coverage, or "med pay."

Med pay helps you and/or your passengers with related medical expenses in the unfortunate event that you and/or your passengers are injured in a car collision. This coverage kicks in regardless of whether you, the other driver, or anyone was at fault. It primarily covers out-of-pocket medical expenses; in other words, if you have health insurance, med pay will still cover what you have personally had to pay in the form of deductibles, visits your insurance will not cover, or otherwise. 

In the event you were at fault for causing the collision, med pay does not typically cover the injuries of the driver or passengers in the vehicle you hit--that is what liability coverage is for. Conversely, if the other driver was at fault, his or her med pay coverage will not cover the injuries that you or your passengers suffered. Again, that is what his or her liability coverage is for.

Additionally, med pay will typically cover you and those covered on your auto insurance policy regardless of where you are. In other words, if you are involved in a car accident as a passenger of a different vehicle or as a pedestrian, med pay will typically cover your out of pocket medical expenses even though you were not injured in your own vehicle.

Med pay is optional, so it is important to to look at your Dec Page to see if it is something you have added to your insurance policy.

In the example below, this coverage will pay up to $5,000 in out of pocket medical expenses to each person covered in the collision.