An accident can happen at any time. At work, on the way home, while driving, at home… you can have a mishap. Some are simple bruises, but you can also be prevented from working for a few days or suffer a serious accident. Given this reality, accident insurance can be a great support. Today we tell you what coverage they offer you.
The truth is that having an accident is something that happens more often than it seems. There are studies that estimate that around 5% of Spaniards have an accident each year. And if we add traffic accidents , work accidents and accidents with personal injuries that occur inside houses, the incidents number in the hundreds of thousands annually.
The risk of suffering an accident , be it minor, serious or even fatal, has an outstanding counterweight in accident insurance, which provides coverage to the injured and their families in these difficult times.
Accident insurance: definition and coverage
Accident insurance is defined as the policy by which the insurer guarantees the insured an indemnity or benefit in the event that he suffers an accident, be it a traffic accident, work accident, domestic accident or any other circumstance contemplated in the contract.
This insurance covers death by accident or accidental death by paying the insured capital. But it also offers coverage to the injured and those who suffer any personal damage as a result of the accident, including disability for the insured .
In fact, most accident insurance contracts protect people who have been unlucky enough to get hurt and temporarily unable to work. In these cases, the insurer makes the health care you need available to you and compensates you if you suffer temporary or permanent disability.
There is also insurance that covers the income you stop having while you are recovering from the damage. And policies that can take care of commitments that you cannot face due to the accident, such as the payment of a loan.
In the professional field, company accident insurance is very common. Moreover, on many occasions these insurances are mandatory and employers must hire them to protect workers in the event of an accident at work.
It is a type of insurance that you can take out as an independent policy or as a complement to other insurance. There are accident policies with specific coverage for groups and professionals, but they are also contracted as coverage included in car insurance or life insurance.
What accidents do these insurances cover?
Insurance covers accidents, but what accidents are really covered? Is all bodily injury resulting from an accident covered by the policy? Well, it needs to be specified.
In the field of insurance, an accident is a bodily injury that originates from a violent, sudden, external cause and beyond the intention of the insured , which produces injuries, disability or death.
According to this definition, an accident of this type is always an unexpected and involuntary event, which can cause personal damage of various kinds, regardless of the economic repercussions or expenses that may be generated as a result of the event.
If the personal damage is caused by oneself, either voluntarily or through reckless behavior or contrary to traffic regulations, we may have an accident. But probably our insurance will not consider it within the coverage of the policy.
What accident insurance does not cover
As we have seen, there are accidents and accidents that insurance will not cover. Among the exclusions of accident insurance, those claims in which it is proven that they have been caused intentionally by the insured stand out.
You have to be serious about this, because the Insurance Contract Law, in its article 102 , establishes that the insurer is not obliged to fulfill the contract if it is discovered that you have intentionally caused the accident. If it is also found that this behavior is an attempt at fraud, the consequences may be more serious.
Other situations not covered by accident insurance are injuries resulting from a demonstration or strike or from an armed conflict. In addition, among the exclusions of the policy, situations such as the insurance having expired, the coverage being suspended due to non-payment or the accident having occurred prior to the payment of the premium are usually listed. In these cases, the insurer will not cover the claim either.
Accident Insurance Coverage
Accident insurance covers the insured for personal damages that they may suffer as a result of an accident, either in their private life or while carrying out their professional activity. The conditions of the policy specify the guarantees included in the contract, since not all accident insurance offers the same protection.
However, the risks covered by accident insurance are basically these:
- Accidental death
- Permanent and absolute disability
- Medical assistance and health expenses as a result of an accident
- Compensation to cover the economic consequences of the accident
Types of Accident Insurance
As we have already pointed out, accident coverage can complement a Life or Car policy, but when you want to take out accident insurance, you will see that there are two types of contracting, depending on whether the policy is contracted individually or is underwritten by a company as group accident insurance.
Personal Accident Insurance
In personal or individual accident insurance, you are the policy holder and the insurance provides coverage to the insured, giving protection to the family or to the persons designated as beneficiaries.
It is an individual insurance that anyone can take out voluntarily. However, these insurances are generally associated with certain professionals and freelancers who, due to their professional activity, are more exposed to various risks. In these cases, it pays to have insurance because the worker has a higher probability of suffering an accident at work. In this blog we tell you in more detail what personal accident insurance is like .
Collective Accident Insurance
Group accident insurance are policies taken out by companies that cover compensation for possible accidents that their workers may suffer while carrying out their activity.
Some of these are mandatory insurance by agreement , that is, the labor agreement establishes the obligation of employers to protect their workers with this coverage, which is also known as agreement insurance or agreement accident insurance.