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How Tough Economies Make Life More Difficult for the Injured
Personal injury attorneys help protect the rights and interests of injured people. Although this assistance is always valuable, it is particularly important during challenging economic times.
July 10, 2009 /Seniors PR News/ -- How Tough Economies Make Life More Difficult for the Injured
Article provided by Casper, Meadows, Schwartz & Cook
Visit us at www.cmslaw.com
The current economy has left many people in dire straits. The lines for unemployment benefits are growing longer by the day. People owe more on their homes than they are worth and are losing homes in record numbers to foreclosures. Those that have jobs are fortunate, but still may face the possibility of having their hours cut or being laid off. It is a time of great financial instability for many Americans.
As a consequence, people are being forced to reprioritize their spending. Instead of deciding whether to go on a vacation or buy a new car, people are contemplating how much they can spend at the grocery store without missing a rent payment and how they can juggle bills to maintain their car insurance premiums. When facing injuries, people are worried about going to the doctor without health insurance. Even for those with insurance, many are concerned about the coverage limitations.
An injured person should not have to worry about the costs of treatment; following a serious injury, the focus should be on healing. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Most of the time, physical injuries are compounded by the related emotional stresses of dealing with the injury.
When injuries are caused by the negligence of others though, assistance is available. Following an accident, one of the best things an injured person can do is to contact an attorney. Personal injury attorneys help injured people protect their rights and interests, seeking all potential sources of recovery. This is particularly important in times of economic stress, when more drivers are uninsured and families are losing health coverage.
More Drivers are Uninsured
One of the first places families cut their budgets is insurance. Studies show that as the economy declines, the number of uninsured drivers increases. The national average for uninsured drivers hovers around 14%. In California the rates are higher, with as many as 18% of motorists driving on the state's roads without car insurance.
To make matters worse, the drivers who are able to maintain their insurance premiums are more likely to only carry the minimum required coverage. Under state law, all insurance companies must offer their policy holders uninsured/underinsured coverage (UM/UIM). UM/UIM policies cover medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering when someone is involved in a hit-and-run collision or an accident caused by a driver without sufficient insurance.
However, most drivers only carry the minimum uninsured/underinsured (UM/UIM) policy limits, which currently are set at $15,000 per person/$30,000 per accident. Following a major accident resulting in catastrophic injuries, the minimum UM/UIM policy may not even pay a fraction of the resulting medical bills. While the actual cost to increase UM/UIM coverage is minimal, many families do not have any extra money in their budgets to pay for additional insurance.
Families are Losing Health Care Coverage
The suffering job market in California has also left many workers and their families without health insurance. A study conducted by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education found that 500,000 Californians have lost their health insurance coverage since the start of the recession in 2007. The study also estimates that an additional 600,000 could lose their health benefits by 2012, even if the economy begins to recover.
Hard-working people are losing their health insurance coverage for several reasons. As employers are forced to cut back their expenses, group health benefits are one of the places that may be cut, particularly when the costs of maintaining those benefits continues to climb year after year. Some workers become ineligible for group health benefits when their hours are cut, or lose them altogether when they are laid-off. More and more people are being forced to take part-time jobs that do not offer health insurance. As a result, a record number of people are left without health coverage in the state.
The Consequences for Injured People
What does this mean for injured people? As the number of drivers with insurance decreases and the number of people without health insurance increases, there is a very real possibility of accidents without any insurance to pay the medical bills. Even with insurance, someone who is severely injured will likely reach their policy limits before completing the necessary treatments, and may be left with considerable medical bills.
This, in turn, leaves many people believing their only option for relief from medical bills is bankruptcy. Recent studies show that medical bills are one of the chief reasons people file for bankruptcy. Nationally, more than 6000 people file for bankruptcy protection every day. It is estimated that by the end of 2009, more than 1.5 million Americans will have filed for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
How an Attorney Can Help
When someone is involved in an accident caused by another person's careless or negligent acts, contacting an attorney is one of the first steps the injured person should take. There are a number of things an attorney can do to help injured people, including:
-Fully investigate the accident and identify all of the parties who may be liable
-Handle negotiations with insurance companies to help the injured person receive a fair settlement
-Find all possible sources of recovery
-File a personal injury lawsuit against the person responsible for the injuries
-Pursue legal action against insurance companies who fail to pay out benefits owed
Bankruptcy should not be an injured person's only viable option after being harmed by someone else's actions. Contact an attorney at our firm today to learn more about the options following an accident.
Article provided by Casper, Meadows, Schwartz & Cook
Visit us at www.cmslaw.com
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