A Guide to Motorcycle Insurance in Massachusetts (MA)
The population of Massachusetts is very densely populated around the Boston area, with about 2/3rds of all the people in Massachusetts congregating their. Boston is on the coast and is a beautiful place to take your motorcycle either for a spin or an extended journey. But when you do so you should be sure to get some comprehensive Massachusetts Motorcycle Insurance, because whilst motorcycling is great, there are some inherent dangers that only good insurance cover can help to give you peace of mind about.
What are the state minimums for Massachusetts Motorcycle Insurance?
There are some state minimum requirements in Massachusetts for Motor Insurance which are where the state has laid down what it feels are the minimum amounts of cover that you MUST have in place.
These figures vary from state to state and often it is not very apparent on what basis they have been chosen, as often the numbers seem quite arbitrary.
The requirements in Massachusetts are:
$20,000 – Bodily Injury cover per person
$40,000 – Bodily Injury cover per accident
$5,000 – Property Damage Cover
$8,000 – Personal injury protection to include lost wages and medical expenses
Are the state minimums for Massachusetts Motorcycle Insurance adequate?
Given that there seems to be very little agreement between the states as to what constitutes an acceptable minimum amount of cover; it is a reasonable question to ask whether or not the levels that the state currently mandates are reasonable, or whether you should get additional cover.
If we first look at the personal injury portion of those requirements then it very quickly becomes clear why you should explore getting higher amounts of cover. Because if you think about the costs of medical treatment in the United States then you can very quickly realise that $8,000 is not going to pay for a whole lot of medical treatment!
If you are caught out and find yourself in an accident where unfortunately you are injured in some way and end up in hospital, then at those basic levels of cover it wouldn’t take long before you found yourself having to personally make up any excess.
And even with the other levels these are considerably lower than most other states (though worryingly some are lower still); and you will most likely decide that getting levels of cover that are higher is a wise precaution.
There are also certain specific elements that you should be looking for when getting Massachusetts Motorcycle Insurance and many of these are not automatically covered by basic policies.
These would include underinsured and uninsured driver cover which protects you in the event that the other driver doesn’t have enough insurance, or else doesn’t have any insurance at all.
This is a type of cover that is becoming increasingly important to get, because about one in six of all drivers doesn’t carry ANY insurance, and so without it you are potentially spinning the roulette wheel every time you drive.
If the number happens to fall on a driver without adequate insurance then you could find yourself paying out a ton of money, because there is no insurance company to pick up the check.
So these are certainly other types of cover that you will want to make certain are added to your Massachusetts Motorcycle Insurance policy.
(For more legal considerations with regards to types of cover that are possible with Massachusetts Motorcycle Insurance you should also be sure to occasionally check with the Massachusetts Division of Insurance).
The other big consideration is whether or not to get comprehensive, full coverage insurance which will not only cover you for liability cover if you are involved in an accident, but will also kick in and pay-out on thefts, vandalism or fires.
The main reason that you might want to particularly consider getting full coverage Massachusetts Motorcycle Insurance is because so many of the population are clustered around big cities like Boston (with a few smaller, but still significant cities like Worcester, Springfield, Lowell and Cambridge as well) which are much more prone to thefts of motor vehicles and motorcycles particularly (which are easier and quicker to transport and steal).
In this regard one of the principal advantages of motorcycles, namely their small footprint and hence freedom and manoeuvrability can also become their Achilles heel, because they are much easier to steal than cars and easier to carry away. So the rates of thefts of motorcycles in Massachusetts is far greater than for cars.
None of which is cause for panic, but you should be sure to make checking out exactly what is available in the way of Massachusetts Motorcycle Insurance Quotes right away, so that you can get properly covered.
These would include underinsured and uninsured driver cover which protects you in the event that the other driver doesn’t have enough insurance, or else doesn’t have any insurance at all.
