How does personal accident insurance work?

What is a personal accident insurance policy?

Personal accident insurance is a type of insurance that, usually, is not mandatory. However, there are certain situations and professions in which it is required to have one, as well as others in which it cannot be used.

The goal of a personal accident insurance is to protect the policyholder from unexpected events that lead to permanent or temporary disability, or death. If the client becomes unable to earn income and pay their expenses, this insurance will cover those payments, as well as their family.

Furthermore, this insurance also guarantees the payment of hospital expenses or compensations in more serious cases.

Personal accident insurance: Coverages

The coverage of a personal accident insurance depends mainly on the reason for which it is contracted. That is, when contracted for a specific profession, related coverages are required.

However, overall, a personal accident insurance includes the following coverages:

• Hospital expenses in case of physical injury;
• Temporary or permanent disability;
• Death due to sudden, external and unpredictable causes.

Please note that this insurance only covers accidents that occur at home or during leisure activities. Normally, accidents during professional activities are not covered, as they are typically covered by workers' compensation insurance.

And you should also know that, in a personal accident insurance, it is common for the following coverages to be excluded: situations of greater risk, such as extreme sports, accidents caused by alcohol or drugs, suicide, self-inflicted injuries, among others.

Who can hire personal accident insurance?

Personal accident insurance can be purchased individually or as a group.

If you hire insurance individually, you will represent both the policyholder and the insured person. This is because you will be hiring the insurance to protect yourself.

In this case, if it is necessary to trigger the insurance for any occurrence, the beneficiary can be the insured person or, in the case of death coverage, their family/heirs. However, the law provides that if the insured person has an occurrence due to the beneficiary's fault, the latter is not entitled to trigger the insurance.

However, in the case of group insurance, it is carried out by companies, associations or unions (insured parties), for other individuals (insured persons).

In what situations am I required to hire personal accident insurance?

Personal accident insurance is mandatory in certain cases, professions, and institutions in cultural and tourist activities.

An example of personal accident insurance is school insurance, mandatory from kindergarten to elementary, secondary, professional, and artistic education.

But there are numerous cases that are regulated in this obligation, with legislated specificities for each.

According to the Insurance and Pension Funds Supervision Authority (ASF), it is mandatory to contract personal accident insurance in the following contexts:

• Students;
• Referees, judges and timekeepers;
• Sport agents with disabilities or impairments;
• High performance athlete/competitive athlete.
• Research fellow
• Municipal or volunteer firefighter;
• Daycares and preschool establishments (Madeira Autonomous Region);
• Children and young people embraced;
• Blood donor;
• Tissue and organ donor;
• Volunteer associative leader;
• Sports leaders;
• Tourism animation companies;
• Management entities of Occupational Activity Centers (CAO);
• Promoting and organizing summer camps;
• Entities providing sports services (public or private);
• Entities promoting or organizing sporting events open to the public;
• Promoting entities of sports vacation projects;
• Entities responsible for sports facilities;
• Public Administration Interns;
• Professional extracurricular internships;
• University and polytechnic students;
• Forcado;
• Forming;
• Members of autonomous bodies;
• Lifeguard;
• Maritime tourism operators;
• Federated sports practitioners
• Diving service providers;
• Itinerant and improvised venues;
• Entertainment and amusement venues;
• Server of the Autonomous Region of Madeira;
• Sports coaches;
• Crew member on fishing vessel;
• Volunteer.

Have you encountered any of these situations and need to hire personal accident insurance? Or just need to clarify doubts? Contact our insurance mediators Poupança no Minuto, who are available to help you throughout the entire process, and for free.