Paying 17% More for Less Coverage? How Insurance Hikes Hurt Injured Victims
Higher health insurance costs can leave an injured person paying more out of pocket for the same medical care. Pennsylvania approved an average 15.97% increase in individual-market health insurance premiums for 2027, down from insurers’ initial request of 17.14%. The approved rates vary by plan and region.
If you’re injured and need to use your insurance coverage, that higher cost can add to the bills already created by medical treatment, missed work, and other accident-related expenses. At HGSK Injury Lawyers, our Reading personal injury attorneys can evaluate your medical bills, insurance payments, lost income, and other losses to make sure the financial impact of your injury is fully documented.
How Can Higher Insurance Costs Leave an Injured Person in Reading Paying More?
A higher premium is only one part of the cost of health coverage. An injured person may also have a deductible, copays, coinsurance, or treatment that the policy doesn’t fully cover. For instance, someone injured in a crash on Route 222 may need emergency care, imaging, physical therapy, medication, and follow-up appointments. Even with health insurance, those services can leave the patient with substantial bills.
Why Can an Injury Become More Expensive Even With Health Insurance?
An injury can require repeated treatment over weeks or months. Specialist visits, diagnostic testing, prescriptions, rehabilitation, and follow-up care can increase expenses, while the injured person may also miss work. A Reading resident recovering from an accident may face two financial problems at once: the costs created by the injury and the higher price of maintaining health coverage.
Does a Higher Health Insurance Premium Increase a Personal Injury Claim in Reading?
Not by itself. A premium increase doesn’t automatically become damages in a personal injury case. The claim should instead account for the actual losses caused by the accident and be supported by the evidence. That can include medical expenses, lost wages, reduced earning ability, and other injury-related costs. Future treatment may also need to be considered when the medical evidence supports it.
What Protections Apply When an Insurer Handles Your Claim?
Pennsylvania’s Unfair Insurance Practices Act sets standards for how insurers handle claims. Under 40 P.S. § 1171.5(a)(10), it addresses practices such as failing to reasonably investigate claims and failing to make fair settlement offers when liability is reasonably clear. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department enforces this law, and individuals generally cannot sue an insurer directly under it.
That does not mean you have no options. If your own insurer mishandles a claim, Pennsylvania’s bad faith statute may provide a separate remedy. Not every denial or low offer is unlawful, though. Our personal injury lawyers in Reading can review how your claim was handled and whether the insurer’s conduct raises a legal concern.
Our Personal Injury Attorneys in Reading Can Account for Higher Insurance Costs
Our Reading personal injury lawyers can gather medical records and bills, document deductibles and other injury-related expenses, calculate lost income, investigate future treatment needs, and review settlement offers. That review can account for treatment and losses that may not appear in the bills you have already received. If you need more treatment, your claim may need to account for additional losses supported by the medical evidence.
Don’t let higher insurance costs become another cost of your injury. When health coverage costs more while an injury creates new medical and financial burdens, the settlement should reflect the losses the accident actually caused. Book your no-cost case evaluation by sending HGSK Injury Lawyers an online message or calling 267-551-8782.