Does Renters Insurance Cover Illness? Img ©
Does Renters Insurance Cover Illness For The Named Insured?
If you’re talking about your own policy, the answer is no. Renters insurance does not cover illness for the named insured. Even the part of the policy designed to cover medical payments is entitled “medical payments to others” so you won’t find any coverage there.
When it comes to any kind of bodily injury or asking your policy to cover illness, your policy is a “third party” policy. That means that the coverage is designed to apply to anyone who is, well, not you. The definition of named insured, of course, generally includes yourself, resident spouse, and resident relatives as happens to be applicable at any given moment, so it won’t cover illness of those people, either.
Illness of anyone on your policy would generally be covered by your own health insurance. That’s a policy that you buy to cover medical losses that happen to you personally. It’s designed to cover such things. Your renters insurance, on the other hand, is not. It’s designed to cover losses to property and losses that you cause to other people.
Does Renters Insurance Cover Illness Caused By The Named Insured?
Having read the above, the next natural question is if the policy will cover illness or injury that you cause to someone else. The answer is yes, absolutely. If your negligence results in illness to someone else, your policy can cover it as well as the costs of defending against that claim. Medical bills are expensive, which is one of the reasons why the answer to how much liability do I need on renters insurance is usually “as much as possible.”
Wouldn’t the other person’s health insurance cover it? Sure, if they have a health insurance policy. If they don’t, those bills are on you because you caused the loss. Even if they have health insurance, those health carriers are very good at asking the right questions to determine who is responsible for a particular loss, how it occurred, and who should pay for it (or reimburse the health insurance company for paying for it!)
What are some reasons that your renters insurance might need to cover illness in another person? Let’s say your child has a friend over. Unbeknownst to anyone – including the child’s parents – the child has an allergy to bee stings. Because no one knows about this latent allergy yet, the child doesn’t carry an epi pen. The child is stung, and suffers injuries because they don’t have the correct medication. The sting happened while the child was at your home and you were responsible for them, therefore you’re likely responsible for the costs of care.
But you’re not just looking to cover illness in that situation. What if that child – or an adult guest in your home – trips over something and falls and aggravates an old knee injury? It was in your home, the thing they tripped over shouldn’t have been there, you might be responsible for those medical bills. Your policy can respond, and save your bank account from having to do so.
On the other hand, what if your college student is renting an apartment, has some friends over, and they’re shooting foam dart guns at each other? One of the friends takes a foam dart to the eye. On a good day, this is a minor annoyance that gets laughed off, but on a bad day it could be very serious.
Yes, your child’s renters insurance on their apartment would likely be the primary coverage. But did you forget that you co-signed or guaranteed that apartment? That potentially makes you equally responsible for any injury caused by your child who lives there. Your Baltimore Renters Insurance can respond to defend you and take care of parts of the loss that the resident’s policy doesn’t.
There are very few questions about renters insurance that don’t have two or more answers. In a specific case, of course, you can form a pointed enough question to determine if there is coverage for that particular event, but if you’re asking “what if” questions, you’ll find the answer often includes a “but” or an “unless.” How, then, do you navigate the policy and find out if renters insurance will cover illness, or any other hypothetical that you want an answer to?
That’s where the insurance experts for renters at Effective Coverage come into play. Not only do we know renters insurance inside and out, we can both answer your question and help direct you to the relevant part of the policy so that you can see for yourself where the policy language creates or excludes coverage, or is entirely silent on the matter at hand.
Liability coverage on renters insurance is something that you may never need. But if you need it and don’t have it, or if you need it and don’t know that a particular scenario is excluded, that can be a life-altering problem. Most people adjust their behavior based on things that minimize risk – you drive the safest route to work most days, right? Most people also adjust their behavior based on what is and is not covered on their insurance, just in case.
To find out more about what’s covered or how your policy might respond to a particular scenario, just reach out to the insurance experts for renters. If you need a policy, you can buy insurance online in just sixty seconds! Either way, you can call (800)892-4308 or click to get covered - whether you need Maryland renters insurance quotes online or coverage anywhere else!
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