Auto Insurance Not Mandatory in Virginia?

Posted & filed under Uninsured Motorists, Virginia Car Insurance.

There’s an interesting conversation heating up the “Letters to the Editor” section of the Richmond Times Dispatch, this week. It began with a letter from reader Glen Besa who drew a comparison between mandatory health care and mandatory auto insurance.

The think is, there is no mandatory auto insurance in the state of Virginia.

Here’s what John Browning wrote, picking on Mr. Besa’s analogy.

On the application form that is used to obtain Virginia license tags, there is a question that asks whether or not the vehicle is covered by automobile liability insurance. If the applicant answers no to this question, he has to pay an uninsured motorist fee of $500. This fee does not give him any sort of insurance coverage; it simply permits him to legally drive his uninsured vehicle on the public roadways.

Furthermore, Section 38.1-381 of the Virginia motor vehicle code stipulates that all automobile liability insurance policies issued in the state must contain an endorsement that affords coverage for bodily injury and property damage caused by uninsured motorists. Here’s a question for Besa: Would this code provision be necessary if all of the vehicles traveling the roadways of this state were insured?

It’s an interesting question. On the other hand, most of us live in states where some form of auto insurance coverage is mandatory, and we still pay for uninsured motorist coverage as well. While the obvious solution may be mandatory insurance, wouldn’t charging people a fee to remain uninsured motorists seem like a valid idea?

As to health care coverage – it’s important to remember that “mandatory” does not mean “bad” and that the recent overhaul bill is merely a very large first step toward a better system.