“If the other guy was at fault in the accident, why should my insurance company pay for my medical bills and wage loss?”
Good question!
In Oregon as in many other states, a decision was made to provide medical insurance for everyone involved in a car accident regardless of who was at fault. Requiring the injured person’s own auto insurer to pay the injured person’s medical bills is the easiest way insure that folks injured in an accident do not “twist in the wind” while trying to show that the other guy was at fault. If you were a passenger, the driver’s PIP insurance company is primarily responsible for paying your meds due to the accident.
Your PIP insurer will later have a reimbursement claim against the insurer for the diver at fault. Be careful though, protecting the PIP insurers right to reimbursement is often tricky. Many liability insurers (the insurer for the bad driver) try to get the injured party to release or limit PIP when resolving the liability claim.
