What Is Medical Payments Homeowners Insurance?
Coverage F, also called medical payments or MedPay coverage, is one of the six major homeowners insurance coverage policies.
This type of home insurance will insure you against any medical payments to guests that are injured in your home, regardless of whose fault that injury was. This coverage also extends to any injuries a guest suffers as a result of being attacked by an animal, such as being bitten by a dog, in your home.
As a result, being insured against such losses could potentially save you a lot of money, as medical bills are one of the biggest expenses that you can face along with damage to property.
To find out more about the other major types of home insurance policies, please see the following articles:
Coverage A (Dwelling) Homeowners Insurance
Coverage B (Other Structures) Homeowners Insurance
Coverage C (Personal Property) Homeowners Insurance
Coverage D (Additional Expenses) Homeowners Insurance
Coverage E (Personal Liability) Homeowners Insurance
You may also want to view these informative videos which discuss standard home insurance in general.
In the rest of this article, we will talk about the main points you need to know about insuring yourself with a coverage F plan and whether or not you actually need to take out such a policy.
Medical Payments Home Insurance
Coverage F medical payments home insurance should not be confused with personal health insurance as it is not something that is designed to insure you, but rather something which is designed to insure another person.
If for example, someone fell down the stairs and injured their back or broke their leg while playing football in your garden, then this type of policy will pay for their medical bills up to the coverage limit. In most cases, this limit is set at $1000, although it is possible to increase this limit by paying a higher premium.
There are two reasons why you might want to insure yourself against the risk of injury or harm to another person.
Morals
The first is out of a sense of morals. If someone does have an accident in your home and needs to go to the hospital as a result of their injuries, then you will be able to cover their medical bills with your insurance and see to it that they get the treatment they need.
Legal Protection
Another reason why you might want to take out such a policy, is to protect yourself against the risk of being sued by another person for an injury that they sustain in your home.
This might happen for example, if you have children who hold a party while you are out-of-town and someone gets injured during that party in your home.
If you are able to cover their medical bills, then they will be less likely to sue you as a result.
Types Of Medical Expenses Covered
Some of the types of expenses that medical payments coverage will insure you for include:
• Prescription drugs
• Lab tests
• X-rays
• Over the counter drugs
• Dental work
• Psychiatric & psychological treatment
• Antibiotics
• Minor surgery
The exact type of coverages you will receive for medical expenses will vary from policy to policy, as will the exclusions. So this is something that you should check and be aware of before taking out MedPay for a third-party.
MedPay Exclusions
Most medical bills can be claimed for, although there are certain exclusions which will prevent you from being able to claim on your MedPay coverage. These are:
• Fees resulting to hospitalization as a result of contracting a communicable disease.
• Fees relating to physical, sexual or mental abuse carried out with wilful intent.
• Fees relating to medical treatment due to the use of illegal drugs.
From these exclusions, you will generally not receive compensation for medical bills if a person was physically injured on purpose, such as due to fighting, if a person requires psychological counselling as a result of purposeful verbal abuse or if people are using controlled substances in your home.
MedPay is therefore largely designed for accidental harm that a person sustains in your home, and not harm that was self-inflicted or purposefully carried out with the intention to harm.
Do You Need To Insure Yourself?
In the large majority of cases you could probably do without insuring yourself for medical payments to others. If someone does get injured in your home, it is likely that they will have their own medical insurance which will subsequently cover them for any medical expenses they incur as a result of their injury.
The only real advantage of having such a policy is if the injured person does not have their own health insurance policy, at which point you will be able to pay for their medical expenses out of your policy.
There is also a risk that if someone is seriously injured in your home, that they may try to sue you for compensation. However, if you already have personal liability coverage, then that will protect you against any fees you incur resulting from legal action.
But as stated earlier, being able to pay for someones hospital or doctor bills will greatly reduce the risk of them taking legal action against you. So this may be something that you wish to take into consideration.
Overall, most people could probably do without a coverage F plan as they are likely to receive adequate coverage from their own insurance policies or from the policies of the guests that they allow in their home.
Those who may benefit however, are families with children/teenagers, families who frequently invite guests into their home or families with dangerous animals or industrial equipment around the home such as in the garage or front or back garden.
It is therefore up to you to make an assessment of the level of risk that you feel that you exposed to. If the risk of someone being injured in your home is relatively low, then saving your money and not taking out a coverage F plan is probably your best option.
But if there is a relatively high risk of another person suffering an injury, then you might not feel comfortable leaving yourself unprotected to such a risk and so would benefit from taking out a coverage F plan.
