NJ Basic Policy vs Standard Policy: what each pays you after a crash

What is the lowest car insurance in NJ?

The Basic Policy, which DOBI says meets the minimum legal requirements, and SAIP, open only to people on federal Medicaid with hospitalization.¹² The legal floors and how they rose by policy date are on our NJ minimum liability limits by policy date page.

What does each policy pay you after a crash?

On a Standard Policy, an optional extra PIP package adds lost wages, essential services, a death benefit and funeral costs unless you decline it. SAIP carries a $10,000 death benefit.³

How much does Basic Policy PIP pay for your medical bills?

$15,000 per person per crash, paid by your own insurer whoever caused it.¹ In Birmingham v. Travelers (2023), an appeals court held that a deductible and co-payment do not shrink a $15,000 PIP limit; the insurer must still pay the full $15,000.⁵

Three things to keep an eye on during a Basic Policy claim:

• Your running total against the $15,000 cap. Bills above it can be claimed from the driver at fault, because the threshold limits only pain and suffering.⁶
• A PIP dispute with your own insurer goes to binding arbitration, run for DOBI by Forthright.⁸
• If you sue for pain and suffering, a doctor's certification is due within 60 days after the other driver answers.⁶

The full menu of Standard limits and how deductibles work is on New Jersey PIP limits and medical bills.

How badly are most people hurt in NJ crashes?

Police coded 95.0 percent of the 147,514 people hurt in 2023 and 2024 as minor or possible injuries.⁷

• 7,399 people, 5.0 percent, were coded suspected serious injury.
• 60,026 were coded suspected minor injury and 80,089 possible injury.
• Preliminary 2025 looks the same: 4.8 percent serious.

Police code injuries at the scene, and that code is not DOBI's list of serious injuries. On a Basic Policy, an injury outside that list stays under the $15,000 cap.

Of 93,593 drivers hurt in those two years, 13,811 (14.8 percent) crashed alone, with no pedestrian or cyclist involved. For them there was often no other driver to claim against, so their own PIP was the main payer.⁷

What does SAIP pay after a crash?

SAIP, often called dollar-a-day insurance, pays emergency care through your first hospital stay.² It also pays up to $250,000 for permanent or significant brain injury, spinal cord injury and disfigurement.⁴

Outpatient care such as follow-up doctor visits is left to Medicaid. SAIP has no liability, collision, comprehensive or UM/UIM coverage, and everyone it covers is held to the limitation on lawsuit.

Can you sue for pain and suffering on a Basic Policy or SAIP?

Yes, but only for an injury that passes the lawsuit threshold, such as a displaced fracture or a permanent injury, because both policies always carry the limitation on lawsuit option.⁶ How the threshold works is on our guide to New Jersey no-fault insurance, and proof is in how to prove pain and suffering in New Jersey.

What happens if you cause a crash on a Basic Policy?

Your policy has no bodily injury liability coverage unless you added the $10,000 option, and DOBI warns your insurer will not defend you if you are sued.¹ That $10,000 is for all injured people together, not per person.

If someone else causes the crash and carries too little, a Basic Policy has no UIM to fill the gap; see our uninsured and underinsured motorist claim help. The first steps after any crash are in what to do after a New Jersey car accident.