Some New Jersey residents may be eligible for a special insurance plan that would cost them just $365 per year. Popularly called the dollar a day car insurance plan, its official name is Special Automobile Insurance Policy or SAIP. People who are enrolled into SAIP can get coverage for emergency medical treatment following a vehicular accident. A lot of people think that they can cancel their regular car insurance and simply apply for SAIP. However, SAIP was never introduced as a cheaper alternative to regular car insurance. Wowed by its cheap premium rate, people often fail to realize that SAIP lacks several features that people take for granted from even the most basic car insurance policy. To end all confusion about SAIP, following are 4 myths about the dollar a day auto insurance that needs to be busted, now.
Anyone Can Get a Dollar a Day Auto Insurance: It is a common misconception that all New Jersey residents can get covered under this plan. At the risk of bursting your bubble, it’s not true. SAIP was designed to cover people who cannot afford to buy regular auto insurance plans. This policy is only for people who have low incomes and are thus eligible for Medicaid services. In fact, people need to bring along their Medicaid ID for their applications to get processed. Apart from being specifically for low-income individuals, applicants also need to have a clean driving record. Drivers with revoked or suspended driver’s license are barred from applying for SAIP.
Eligible Applicants Need to Pay the Annual Premium Upfront: Considering the fact that most SAIP applicants have limited financial means, there are several ways of paying the premium. Applicants can pay the entire annual amount upfront, which would save them $5 on the total cost. This means they would just need to pay $360, which would end up costing them less than a dollar a day. Applicants may also choose to pay the premium in two installments of $182.50.
It’s Just like a Regular Car Insurance: As mentioned before, SAIP is not like any other car insurance. A regular car insurance pays for third-party damages and covers the cost to repair the damaged vehicle, options that are simply not available with SAIP. SAIP only covers the post-accident medical cost of the insured, that’s it.
It Covers All the Costs of the Medical Treatment: The SAIP policy is geared towards covering the emergency medical treatment following a car crash. It also offers an additional $250,000 coverage for treating spinal cord and brain injuries. The fact that “brain” and “spinal cord” are specifically mentioned in the policy terms, means that the policy does not cover the cost of ongoing treatments of other types of injuries. This means if a person gets admitted with a severed limb, the policy will only cover the ER charges and not the cost of the ongoing treatment required to fully treat the injury. Apart from the medical treatment, the policy also pays out a flat sum of $10,000 to the nominee if the car accident results in the death of the insured person.