Legal Question in Personal Injury in Texas

Not exactly. They (or you) are combining and confusing the differences between Uninsured Motorist coverage ("UM") and Personal Injury Protection (PIP). It is true that PIP will reimburse all medical bills incurred within 3 years of the accident (up to the policy limit, which in Texas is either $2,500.00, $5,000.00, or $10,000.00, depending upon how much you purchased in advance of the accident), but PIP also is responsible for reimbursing 80% of your lost wages and also 100% of your "loss of household services" expenses (but all bills, wages, and expenses combined cannot exceed your policy limit). The kicker in your case, however, is that your carrier gets to claim an "off-set" in your UM claim for whatever it paid under PIP. In other words, you cannot collect both PIP and UM, unless your total damages exceed the combined policy limits of UM and PIP. So what your carrier is doing is simply claiming a credit for what your PIP would have paid, which is the same thing as paying you the PIP and then deducting it from your UM claim. Understand? If your reaction is like most people I know, you're screaming about now, "That's not fair! I paid for both PIP and UM! Why can't I collect on BOTH?" And I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately, the Republican Party does not. Republicans feel it would be "unjust enrichment" for you to collect from both policies (even though you paid a premium for each coverage) and the same logic is now applied to all other forms of insurance as well. Some examples: Let's say you are hurt in an automobile accident while on the job and you miss six weeks of work so you have to draw workers' comp to help pay your mortgage while you're off from work. If you later collect from the insurance policy of the person who caused your accident--or even from your OWN automobile insurance policy--you have to pay the workers' comp insurance company back every dime of what they paid on your comp claim, right up to the full amount of what the other insurance company (or your own) paid as your settlement. Or, let's say your neighbor runs over your foot with his riding lawn mower and you are rushed to the hospital and you use your health insurance from work to pay your hospital bill. If you later collect a settlement from your neighbor's homeowner's policy, you have to pay that money to your health insurance company until you've paid back every dime they paid on your behalf. And on and on it goes. It used to be (pre-George Bush) that if you were hurt, you could collect from the other guy's insurance and your own--and if you had paid the premiums for two policies, you could collect on both policies (makes sense, doesn't it? You paid the premiums, so you should get to collect the benefits.). But now (post-George Bush) you get to collect on ONE, and you have to give the money back to all the other insurance companies. So, they get to collect your premiums AND keep your benefits. That's a pretty sweet deal for the insurance companies, don't you think? (It's no wonder they measure their profits each year in the billions [that's BILLIONS, with a "b"]). Think about that the next time you're tempted to vote for Rick Perry or Kay Bailey Hutchison (or any other Republican, all of whom are beholden to big business and insurance companies). If they get their way, you'll have to send a letter of apology to the insurance company along with your reimbursement check--to show how sorry you are for inconveniencing them with your injuries. How dare you get hurt and expect an insurance company to pay you anything! How DARE you!