Auto insurance minimums in New Hampshire
New Hampshire does not require most drivers to carry auto liability insurance — it is the only state that does not. A driver who buys a policy, or who is required to have one after a crash or a conviction, must carry limits of 25/50/25: $25,000 of bodily injury liability per person, $50,000 of bodily injury liability per accident, and $25,000 of property damage liability per accident. The three numbers are always in that order, and they are the legal floor, not a coverage recommendation: a serious crash can produce losses far above the minimum, and the minimum is the most the insurer will pay, not the most the crash will cost.
New Hampshire's 25/50/25 figures are the most common pattern in the country: $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident, $25,000 property damage. What is uncommon is that the figures apply only if a policy is bought or required: a driver who causes a crash without cover risks immediate licence and registration suspension and a security-deposit requirement, and remains personally liable for the crash costs.
The minimums are for private passenger vehicles, and they are not the only cover a policy that is bought must carry. Any policy bought in New Hampshire must include $1,000 of medical payments cover per person and uninsured motorist cover of 25/50, which stacks to match higher liability limits elected unless rejected in writing. Drivers ordered to prove financial responsibility after a serious offence file an SR-22, typically for three years. Lenders and leasing companies require more again: a financed or leased car usually has to carry collision and comprehensive cover, and often higher liability limits, because the lender's interest in the car has to be protected. A driver who buys only the state minimum and skips collision cover has no cover for their own car at all, and the state minimum does not change that. The site's guide to full coverage versus liability works through the decision, including what a lender counts as full coverage.
Fault, PIP and uninsured motorist cover in New Hampshire
New Hampshire is an at-fault, or tort, state. After a crash, the at-fault driver's insurer pays for the other driver's injuries. There is no PIP requirement, and no threshold limiting the right to sue for pain and suffering. New Hampshire uses modified comparative fault with a 51% bar: a driver who is 51% or more at fault cannot recover.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist cover is the protection against the other driver's lack of cover, and its position in New Hampshire is: uninsured motorist cover of 25/50 is required on any policy that is bought, and it auto-stacks to match higher liability limits elected unless rejected in writing. The site's uninsured motorist guide explains how the cover works, and the California uninsured motorist page explains the offer-and-rejection pattern that several states use. The practical point is the same in every state: the minimum liability limits say what the other driver must carry, and uninsured motorist cover says what happens when they do not carry it — and the two together decide whether a crash with an uninsured driver leaves you paying out of pocket.
No-fault is the system most often confused with the minimums, and it is worth separating the two. The minimums say how much liability cover you must carry. No-fault says who pays for injuries after a crash. New Hampshire is not a no-fault state, so there is no PIP requirement and no threshold on suing. The at-fault driver's liability pays for injuries, once fault is established, subject to the 51% comparative fault rule. The $1,000 medical payments cover on a policy that is bought pays some medical costs in the meantime. The site's no-fault guide explains the twelve no-fault states, the choice states, and the thresholds that limit lawsuits for pain and suffering. Read the page for your own state before relying on the general description, because the general description is a map and the state page is the road.
Home insurance in New Hampshire
No state law in New Hampshire requires a homeowner to carry homeowners insurance. The requirement, where it exists, comes from the lender: a mortgage lender almost always requires homeowners cover as a condition of the loan, and the lender sets the dwelling limit it will accept. A homeowner without a mortgage is not legally required to insure the house, but an uninsured house is an uninsured asset — a fire, a storm or a burst pipe can destroy the largest asset most people own, and there is no cover to rebuild it. The site's guide to whether homeowners insurance is required explains the lender position in full, and the site's homeowners guide explains how to judge a policy for the house rather than by a ranking.
A standard homeowners policy in New Hampshire has the same six parts as everywhere in the country: dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, personal liability and medical payments, as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners describes them. The dwelling limit is set by the estimated rebuild cost, not the market value, and the site's homeowners cost calculator works that figure out from the living area and a rebuild cost per square foot. Flood and earthquake are excluded from a standard policy and need separate cover — flood through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer, earthquake through a separate earthquake policy — and the site's flood and earthquake guides explain the routes. Your flood zone is an address-level fact, not a state-level one, so check the zone for the address, not for the state.
The deductible deserves the same attention in New Hampshire as anywhere else. The minimum deductible offered by most insurers is $500 or $1,000, according to the Insurance Information Institute, and for wind, hail and hurricane damage the deductible is often a percentage of the home's insured value, typically 1% to 5% according to the III. On a home insured for $300,000, a 2% wind and hail deductible is $6,000. The site's tornado and hail guides explain the percentage deductible and the cosmetic-damage rule in full, and the declarations page should show both deductibles — the flat all-other-perils amount and the percentage wind and hail amount — before the policy is bought.
Health insurance in New Hampshire
Health cover in New Hampshire runs through the marketplace: New Hampshire uses HealthCare.gov, the federally facilitated marketplace. Enroll through HealthCare.gov for marketplace cover and premium tax credits. The site's enrollment and subsidies guide walks through the ACA route, and the subsidy calculator estimates what a premium tax credit would do to the monthly cost. Losing other cover is the common trigger for a special enrollment period, and a marketplace plan bought through it covers pre-existing conditions, covers essential health benefits, and can be bought with a tax credit — the three things a short-term plan does not offer.
Medicaid in New Hampshire: New Hampshire has expanded Medicaid since 15 August 2014, so adults can qualify on income up to 138% of the poverty level. The site's Medicaid eligibility guide and its checker explain the income rules, and they are the place to test eligibility rather than assuming it.
Short-term health insurance in New Hampshire: Short-term health plans are sold in New Hampshire, narrowly: as of 2026 one insurer offers them. A plan is capped at six months and is not renewable, and a buyer is barred if they had more than 540 days of short-term cover in the past 24 months. From 1 January 2027, a change signed in June 2026 allows terms under 12 months and total duration up to 36 months. A short-term plan does not cover pre-existing conditions, does not cover essential health benefits in full, and cannot be bought with a tax credit. The site's short-term hub guide explains the federal duration rule, the August 2025 pause on enforcing it, and the alternatives that cover more — an ACA plan through a special enrollment period, COBRA continuation of an employer's plan, or Medicaid if income qualifies.
The regulator, complaints and how to check a quote
Insurance in New Hampshire is regulated by the New Hampshire Insurance Department. The regulator licenses insurers, approves the rating plans that set premiums and discounts, and handles complaints when an insurer's conduct is in question. If a claim is denied or underpaid, or if an insurer's behaviour seems wrong, the regulator is the place to complain — and the complaint should be made with the policy, the declarations page and the claim correspondence in hand, because the regulator decides on the record. The NAIC publishes complaint data comparing insurers by complaints relative to their size, and the state department publishes its own figures: read the ratio alongside the company's size and the state's average, not on its own.
Before buying any policy in New Hampshire, run the checks in this order. First, the licence: is the insurer licensed in New Hampshire, under the name on the policy. Second, the cover: do the limits match the need — the auto minimums above are the floor, not the recommendation, and the home dwelling limit should match the rebuild cost. Third, the settlement method and the exclusions: is the roof settled at replacement cost or actual cash value, is flood covered or excluded, is there a cosmetic-damage exclusion. Fourth, the deductible: what is the flat deductible, is there a percentage wind and hail deductible, and can you pay it from savings on the day of a loss. Fifth, the price: compare like with like, on identical limits, identical deductibles and identical cover types, and compare the total cost, not the premium alone.
Keep the documents together after buying: the policy, the declarations page, the insurer's claims number, and the regulator's contact details, in a place you can reach after a loss. A flooded house or a crashed car is a bad time to discover that the only copy of the policy was in the house or the car. The site's editorial policy explains how this site reviews its guides, and the contact page gives the address for questions about the site itself — but for a question about a policy, the insurer and the regulator are the authorities, not this site.
Worked example
Consider an ILLUSTRATIVE driver in New Hampshire buying a first policy. She starts with the limits a policy bought in New Hampshire must carry — 25/50/25 — and asks whether they are enough: a serious crash can produce medical bills above the per-person limit and property damage above the property-damage limit, so she compares quotes at higher limits as well as at the minimum, on identical deductibles. She reads the fault section above and notes that there is no PIP paying her medical bills while fault is decided, although the $1,000 medical payments cover on any policy bought pays some medical costs, and that she can sue for pain and suffering without clearing a threshold. She checks the home policy for the same household against the rebuild cost, confirms the roof's settlement method, and reads both deductibles on the declarations page. She checks the health position — the marketplace route, the Medicaid position, and the short-term rules in New Hampshire — before assuming that a short-term plan is an option. The example's value is the method, not any figure in it: no premium is stated, because premiums vary by insurer and by driver. What it shows is that the state rules are the starting point for every quote, and a quote judged against another state's rules is a quote misjudged.