What Kansas Requires You to Carry
You bought a policy that meets Kansas minimums: $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident, $25,000 property damage, plus PIP and uninsured motorist coverage. The agent confirmed you're compliant. Then someone without insurance rear-ends your car at a stoplight, totaling your vehicle and sending you to the ER. You file a claim under your uninsured motorist coverage — and discover it pays your medical bills but not your car.
Kansas law mandates uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage at the same limits as your liability policy. If you carry the state minimum $25,000/$50,000 liability, your uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage matches those limits. What the mandate does not include: uninsured motorist property damage. That coverage is optional, sold separately, and most minimum-coverage policies don't include it. The structural gap catches drivers who assume "uninsured motorist" means the policy covers everything an at-fault uninsured driver should have paid.
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Get Your Free QuoteKansas Uninsured Motorist Rate
12%
One in eight Kansas drivers carries no insurance. When an uninsured driver causes a crash, your uninsured motorist coverage is the only source of payment unless you sue and collect — a process that rarely succeeds when the at-fault driver has no assets.
Insurance Research Council, 2023
Bodily Injury Coverage Pays Your Medical Bills
Uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage pays for injuries you and your passengers sustain when an uninsured or hit-and-run driver causes the crash. It covers medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and permanent disability up to your policy limits. Your uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage picks up where PIP stops.
The coverage applies per person and per accident. A $25,000/$50,000 policy pays up to $25,000 for any one person's injuries and up to $50,000 total for all injuries in the crash. If three passengers are injured and their combined medical bills and lost wages exceed $50,000, the policy pays only $50,000. The at-fault driver is legally liable for the rest, but an uninsured driver rarely has assets to collect against.
Underinsured motorist bodily injury coverage — a related product often bundled with uninsured motorist coverage — pays when the at-fault driver carries liability insurance but their limits are too low to cover your injuries. Kansas does not mandate underinsured motorist coverage, but most carriers offer it at the same limits as your uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage. If you carry $25,000/$50,000 uninsured motorist coverage and an at-fault driver carries only the state minimum $25,000/$50,000 liability, your underinsured motorist coverage does not pay — the at-fault driver's limits match yours. Underinsured coverage only pays when the at-fault driver's limits are lower than yours.
Kansas mandates uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage but not property damage coverage. Your policy pays medical bills when an uninsured driver hits you; it does not pay to fix your car unless you bought the optional property damage add-on.
Property Damage Coverage Is Optional
The coverage applies only when the at-fault driver is confirmed uninsured or is a hit-and-run driver you cannot identify. If the at-fault driver carries any liability insurance, even a minimum-limit policy, your uninsured motorist property damage coverage does not pay. Their liability property damage coverage pays instead.
Collision coverage is a separate product that pays for vehicle damage regardless of fault and regardless of whether the at-fault driver has insurance. If you carry collision coverage, you typically do not need uninsured motorist property damage coverage — collision already covers the scenario. Most drivers choose one or the other, not both. Collision coverage costs more but applies in single-vehicle crashes, hit-and-run crashes, and crashes where the at-fault driver is uninsured or underinsured. Uninsured motorist property damage coverage costs less but applies only when the at-fault driver is confirmed uninsured or is a hit-and-run driver.
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How Claims Work When the Driver Has No Insurance
You file an uninsured motorist claim with your own carrier, not the at-fault driver's carrier. Your carrier investigates whether the at-fault driver was uninsured at the time of the crash. Kansas requires all drivers to carry proof of insurance; if the at-fault driver cannot produce proof and the Kansas Division of Vehicles confirms no active policy, your carrier classifies the driver as uninsured and processes your claim under your uninsured motorist coverage.
Hit-and-run crashes qualify as uninsured motorist claims when you cannot identify the at-fault driver. Kansas law requires you to report the crash to law enforcement and to your carrier within a reasonable time — typically 24 to 72 hours depending on your policy terms. If you delay reporting or cannot provide a police report, your carrier may deny the claim. Most policies require a police report for hit-and-run claims even when the damage is minor.
Your carrier pays your uninsured motorist bodily injury claim up to your policy limits, then subrogate against the at-fault driver to recover what they paid. Subrogation rarely succeeds when the at-fault driver has no insurance and no assets, but Kansas law gives your carrier the right to pursue recovery. You cannot settle directly with the at-fault driver or sign a release without your carrier's written consent — doing so voids your uninsured motorist coverage for that claim.
Kansas Minimum UM Bodily Injury
$25,000 / $50,000
Kansas requires uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage at the same limits as your liability policy. Drivers who carry the state minimum $25,000/$50,000 liability automatically carry $25,000/$50,000 uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage. Higher liability limits trigger higher uninsured motorist minimums unless you reject the coverage in writing.
K.S.A. 40-284
Raising Your Limits Costs Less Than You Expect
Uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage at $25,000/$50,000 leaves you exposed when injuries are severe. A multi-day hospital stay, surgery, or permanent disability exhausts $25,000 quickly.
Kansas law allows you to reject uninsured motorist coverage entirely or to carry limits lower than your liability limits, but only if you sign a written rejection or reduction form. Most carriers discourage rejection because the coverage protects you from a risk you cannot control — whether the other driver carries insurance. If you reject the coverage and an uninsured driver injures you, your only recourse is to sue the at-fault driver and attempt to collect a judgment. That process takes years and rarely succeeds when the defendant has no assets.
Compare Carriers That Write Multiple Vehicles
Kansas law requires every carrier writing auto insurance in the state to offer uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage. Not every carrier offers uninsured motorist property damage coverage, and those that do price it differently. When you insure multiple vehicles, the cost difference between carriers compounds across every car on the policy.
Compare quotes from carriers that write policies covering multiple vehicles in Kansas. The state roster includes 26 carriers licensed to write standard and non-standard auto insurance, and most offer multi-car discounts that reduce the per-vehicle cost of every coverage including uninsured motorist. Request quotes that include uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage at limits higher than the state minimum and uninsured motorist property damage coverage if you do not carry collision.