What Are the Minimum Car Insurance Requirements in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts requires every registered vehicle to carry four compulsory coverages, and as of July 1, 2025 the required minimums are $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury to others, $8,000 in personal injury protection, $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury caused by an uninsured auto, and $30,000 for damage to someone else’s property. Those are the current figures under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A and sec. 34O as amended by St. 2024, c. 275. If you have seen 20/40/5 printed somewhere, that was the law until June 30, 2025, and it is now out of date. The more important point, and the one that catches people, is what a minimum policy does not do. Under the Division of Insurance’s own description, the compulsory bodily injury coverage pays only when the crash happens in Massachusetts, and it does not cover injuries to the passengers in your own car. Both of those gaps are closed by an optional coverage that most Massachusetts drivers have never had explained to them. If you are dealing with a crash and trying to work out which policy pays for what, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day, and the first telephone consultation is free.

The Numbers Changed on July 1, 2025

For decades Massachusetts sat near the bottom of the national table on compulsory limits. The minimum for bodily injury to others was $20,000 per person and $40,000 per accident, and the minimum for property damage was $5,000, a figure that had not kept pace with the cost of a car for a very long time. A $5,000 property damage limit against a modern vehicle is not a limit so much as a down payment.

St. 2024, c. 275, titled AN ACT RELATIVE TO MOTOR VEHICLE INSURANCE, changed three numbers. It struck “at least twenty thousand dollars” and inserted “not less than $25,000.” It struck “at least forty thousand dollars” and inserted “not less than $50,000.” And in the property damage section it struck “five thousand dollars” and inserted “$30,000.” Section 4 of the act sets the switchover: “Sections 1 to 3, inclusive, shall apply to motor vehicle liability policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025.”

Read that effective-date language carefully, because it is drafted around renewal rather than around a calendar date. A policy written in, say, March 2025 for a twelve-month term carried the old limits for the rest of that term. Everyone came onto the new floors at their own renewal, which means the last of the 20/40/5 policies ran out during the first half of 2026. If your crash happened in 2025, the limits that apply are the limits in the policy that was in force on the day of the crash, not the limits in force today.

The Four Compulsory Coverages

The Massachusetts auto policy is built in numbered parts. Four of them are compulsory, meaning you cannot register a vehicle in the Commonwealth without them, and the rest are optional. Here is what each compulsory part actually does.

Part 1, Bodily Injury to Others, minimum $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. This is liability coverage. It pays other people when you injure or kill them with your car. It does not pay you. Two limitations are built into the compulsory version and both are significant: it applies only to accidents that occur in Massachusetts, and it does not cover the injury or death of a passenger in your own car.

Part 2, Personal Injury Protection, $8,000. This is the no-fault coverage, and it pays regardless of who caused the crash. Under the definition in M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A, it covers reasonable medical expenses incurred within two years of the accident, up to 75 percent of lost wages, and replacement services, subject to that $8,000 combined ceiling for any one person. It covers you, anyone you let drive your car, everyone living in your household, your passengers, and pedestrians you strike. The mechanics of PIP have their own quirks, and they are set out in detail in how personal injury protection works in Massachusetts.

Part 3, Bodily Injury Caused by an Uninsured Auto, minimum $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. This is the coverage that pays you when the at-fault driver has no insurance at all, or when the driver leaves the scene and is never identified. M.G.L. c. 175, sec. 113L requires this coverage in “amounts or limits prescribed for bodily injury or death for a liability policy under this chapter,” which is why the Part 3 minimum moved from 20/40 to 25/50 in lockstep with Part 1. What Part 3 does not cover is the driver who is insured but carries too little, which is a different problem with a different solution. That distinction is worked through in uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage in Massachusetts.

Part 4, Damage to Someone Else’s Property, minimum $30,000. This pays for the property you damage, most commonly another vehicle, and it now sits at six times the old floor. It does not pay for your own car. Nothing in the compulsory package does.

Answer Capsule

Massachusetts law requires four compulsory auto insurance coverages on every registered vehicle. For policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025, the minimums are: bodily injury to others, $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident (M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A); personal injury protection, $8,000 covering medical expenses, up to 75 percent of lost wages and replacement services (M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A and sec. 34M); bodily injury caused by an uninsured auto, $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident (M.G.L. c. 175, sec. 113L, which ties this limit to the liability limit); and damage to someone else’s property, $30,000 (M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34O). The prior figures, in force through June 30, 2025, were $20,000 and $40,000 for bodily injury and $5,000 for property damage; St. 2024, c. 275 raised them, and by its own terms the change applied at each policy’s next issue or renewal rather than on a single date. Three things the compulsory package does not do: the bodily injury coverage applies only to accidents occurring in Massachusetts, it excludes passengers in your own car, and nothing in it repairs your own vehicle. Optional bodily injury coverage raising the limit to $40,000 per person and $90,000 per accident also extends coverage to your passengers and to crashes outside Massachusetts. Underinsured motorist coverage, which covers the at-fault driver who is insured but carries too little, is optional and is reduced by whatever you collect from that driver’s own liability policy. Collision and comprehensive, which pay for your own vehicle, are optional and normally carry a $500 deductible. Driving an uninsured vehicle is a criminal offence under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34J, punishable by a fine of not less than $500 and not more than $5,000, up to one year in a house of correction, and a 60-day licence suspension on a first offence. This is general information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice.

The Three Gaps in a Minimum Policy

A driver carrying exactly the compulsory coverages is legal. Whether they are protected is a different question, and the honest answer is that they have three holes in the middle of their coverage.

The first gap is your own passengers. The Division of Insurance states it plainly in its consumer guidance: the compulsory bodily injury coverage “does not cover the injury or death of a passenger in your car.” Think about who actually rides in your car. A spouse, your children, a parent, a colleague, a friend. If you cause a crash and injure the person in your passenger seat, your compulsory Part 1 does not respond to their bodily injury claim. Their own PIP will pay the first layer of medical bills and lost wages up to $8,000, and after that, on a minimum policy, there is no liability coverage standing behind you.

The second gap is the state line. Compulsory Part 1 covers only accidents that occur in Massachusetts. Massachusetts is a small state bordered by five others, and an enormous share of ordinary driving here crosses a line at some point: Route 95 into Rhode Island, Route 91 into Connecticut or Vermont, Route 93 into New Hampshire, the Mass Pike west into New York. A crash on the wrong side of that line is a crash your compulsory liability coverage was not written to cover.

The third gap is your own car. None of the four compulsory coverages repairs your vehicle. If the other driver is at fault and insured, their Part 4 pays for your car up to their limit. If they are at fault and uninsured, or if the crash is your fault, or if a tree falls on the car, nothing in the compulsory package responds. Collision and comprehensive are optional coverages.

The Optional Coverages That Close Them

All Massachusetts insurers offer the same menu of optional coverages, because the policy form is standardised. Four of them matter most.

Optional bodily injury to others. This is the one that fixes two of the three gaps at once. It raises the limit to $40,000 for one person and $90,000 for everyone hurt in the accident, and it also extends the coverage to passengers in your car and to accidents that occur outside Massachusetts. Higher limits than $40,000 and $90,000 are available and are commonly purchased; the point is that the optional part is what changes the scope, not just the number.

Underinsured motorist coverage. This covers the situation Part 3 does not: an at-fault driver who has insurance but not enough of it. It is optional, and it is offset. As the Division of Insurance explains, if you hold $50,000 per person in underinsured coverage and you collect $25,000 from the at-fault driver’s liability policy, the most you can recover under your own underinsured coverage is the $25,000 difference. That offset surprises people, and it is the reason a low underinsured limit can turn out to be worth nothing at all against a driver who carried the state minimum.

Collision and comprehensive. Collision pays for damage to your car from physical contact with another object, whoever was at fault. Comprehensive pays for the things that are not collisions: theft, fire, vandalism, falling objects, an animal in the road, glass breakage. Both normally carry a $500 deductible. If you have a car loan or a lease, your lender will usually require both.

Medical payments. Sold in amounts of at least $5,000, this coverage sits behind PIP and pays reasonable medical and funeral expenses for people in your car. Because PIP stops at $8,000 and, for anyone with health insurance, often stops far earlier than that, medical payments coverage is frequently the difference between a bill being covered and being sent to collections.

The $2,000 Rule That Shrinks PIP for Most People

There is one piece of the compulsory package that behaves differently from how almost everyone assumes it behaves, and it deserves its own explanation because it decides how much of your $8,000 you actually get.

Under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A, PIP “shall not provide for payment of more than two thousand dollars of expenses” for medical, surgical, x-ray, dental and related services if and to the extent that those expenses “have been or will be compensated, paid or indemnified pursuant to any policy of health, sickness or disability insurance.” In plain terms: if you have health insurance, PIP pays the first $2,000 of your medical bills, and after that your health insurer becomes the primary payer for medical expenses. The remaining PIP money is not gone, but it is available for the things health insurance does not pay, principally lost wages, replacement services, and medical charges your health plan refuses.

The same section blocks the obvious countermove by the health insurer: no health, sickness or disability policy “shall deny coverage for said expenses because of the existence of personal injury protection benefits.” Your health plan cannot point at your PIP and walk away.

One more wrinkle. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34M lets a policyholder elect a PIP deductible of $100, $250, $500, $1,000, $2,000, $4,000 or $8,000 in exchange for a lower premium. An $8,000 deductible on $8,000 of coverage means, in practice, no PIP at all. That election is on your coverage selections page, and people who made it years ago to shave a premium generally do not remember making it.

Driving Without Insurance

Operating an uninsured motor vehicle in Massachusetts is a criminal offence, not a ticket. Under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34J, the penalty is a fine of not less than $500 and not more than $5,000, imprisonment for not more than one year in a house of correction, or both, plus a licence suspension of 60 days on a first offence and one year on a second or subsequent offence within six years. There is also a financial consequence beyond the fine: a person convicted becomes liable to the insurance plan for the greater of $500 or one year’s premium at the highest rated territory and class.

If you were hit by someone driving uninsured, the practical route runs through your own Part 3 coverage rather than through that driver’s non-existent policy, and the steps are set out in what to do when the at-fault driver has no insurance.

Where the Minimums Meet a Real Claim

Two connections are worth drawing, because minimum limits do not exist in isolation.

The first is the tort threshold. Massachusetts is a no-fault state for the first layer of a claim, and a person injured in a crash generally cannot recover for pain and suffering unless the claim clears the threshold in M.G.L. c. 231, sec. 6D, which is most commonly met by more than $2,000 in reasonable medical expenses. That threshold, and the injury categories that clear it regardless of the bills, are explained in the Massachusetts serious injury threshold.

The second is what happens when the damages exceed the policy. A $25,000 per person limit is not a cap on what your injuries are worth, it is a cap on what that insurer will pay. Where the harm runs past the coverage, the remaining routes are the at-fault driver’s own assets, your own underinsured coverage, and any other policy that might respond, which is the subject of whether an at-fault driver has to pay out of pocket. This is the practical reason the 2025 increase matters. On a serious injury, the difference between a $20,000 floor and a $25,000 floor is real money, and the jump in property damage from $5,000 to $30,000 removes one of the most common sources of an unpaid vehicle repair in the Commonwealth.

What to Check on Your Own Policy

Find your coverage selections page, the single sheet your insurer sends at each renewal listing every part with a limit next to it. Then check five things.

Whether Part 1 shows the compulsory 25/50 only, or whether you also carry optional bodily injury at higher limits. If it is compulsory only, your passengers and your out-of-state driving are uncovered. Whether Part 12, underinsured motorist coverage, appears at all, and at what limit. Whether Part 2 carries a deductible, and how large. Whether Parts 7 and 9, collision and comprehensive, are present if you would not want to absorb the loss of your car. And whether the vehicles and drivers listed are still the vehicles and drivers in your household.

None of that requires an insurance professional to read. It requires ten minutes and knowing which lines to look at.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What are the minimum car insurance requirements in Massachusetts right now?

A: For any policy issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025: bodily injury to others at $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, personal injury protection at $8,000, bodily injury caused by an uninsured auto at $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, and damage to someone else’s property at $30,000. These come from M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A and sec. 34O, and from M.G.L. c. 175, sec. 113L for the uninsured motorist limit.

Q: I keep seeing 20/40/5 for Massachusetts. Which is right?

A: 20/40/5 was correct through June 30, 2025 and is now out of date. St. 2024, c. 275 raised bodily injury to 25/50 and property damage to $30,000. Because section 4 of that act applied the change to policies “issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025,” policies written before that date kept the old limits until their next renewal. For a crash, what matters is the limits in the policy that was in force on the day it happened.

Q: Does my Massachusetts minimum policy cover my passengers?

A: The compulsory bodily injury coverage does not. The Division of Insurance states that Part 1 “does not cover the injury or death of a passenger in your car.” Your passengers can claim under personal injury protection for medical expenses and lost wages up to $8,000, and passengers are covered for bodily injury if you have purchased the optional bodily injury coverage, which extends the protection to them.

Q: Am I covered if I crash in New Hampshire or Rhode Island?

A: Not by the compulsory bodily injury coverage, which applies only to accidents that occur in Massachusetts. The optional bodily injury coverage extends it to accidents outside the state. Personal injury protection, collision and comprehensive are separate coverages with their own terms, so check your policy rather than assuming the whole package stops at the border.

Q: Is underinsured motorist coverage required in Massachusetts?

A: No. Uninsured motorist coverage, which covers a driver with no insurance and a hit-and-run driver, is compulsory. Underinsured motorist coverage, which covers a driver who is insured but carries too little, is an optional election under M.G.L. c. 175, sec. 113L(2). It is also offset: whatever you collect from the at-fault driver’s liability policy is subtracted from what your underinsured coverage will pay.

Q: If I have health insurance, does PIP still pay my medical bills?

A: It pays the first $2,000. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A caps PIP at $2,000 of medical expenses to the extent those expenses are covered by a policy of health, sickness or disability insurance, after which your health insurer is the primary payer for medical care. The rest of the $8,000 remains available for lost wages, replacement services, and charges your health plan does not cover. Your health insurer is separately barred from denying coverage merely because PIP exists.

Q: What happens if I drive without insurance in Massachusetts?

A: It is a criminal offence under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34J, carrying a fine of not less than $500 and not more than $5,000, up to one year in a house of correction, or both, along with a 60-day licence suspension for a first offence and a one-year suspension for a second within six years. A convicted person is also liable to the insurance plan for the greater of $500 or one year’s premium at the highest rated territory and class.

Q: Do the minimum limits cap what my injury claim is worth?

A: No. The limits cap what that particular insurer will pay under that particular coverage. The value of a claim is a separate question decided on the injuries, the treatment, the losses and the evidence, which is covered in how Massachusetts car accident case value is assessed. When the harm exceeds the available coverage, the remaining sources are the at-fault driver’s own assets, your underinsured motorist coverage if you carry it, and any other policy that might apply.

Q: Is Jimmy Knows AI giving me legal advice?

A: No. This is general information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney client relationship. Insurance policies differ, and whether any of this applies to your situation depends on facts that are not in this article, starting with the actual terms of your own policy. For advice about your own case, speak with a lawyer.