Auto insurance minimums in Texas
Texas requires drivers to carry auto liability insurance, and the minimum limits are 30/60/25. Written out, that is $30,000 of bodily injury liability per person, $60,000 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.
Texas's minimums are higher than the most common pattern in the country: $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident, $25,000 property damage. The figures come from section 601.072 of the Texas Transportation Code, and they have not changed since 1 January 2011. Texas checks cover electronically through TexasSure. Either way, the minimum is a floor: a serious crash can exceed it, and the insurer pays only up to the limit.
The minimums are for private passenger vehicles, and they are not the only cover the state requires. Personal injury protection is included in every Texas policy unless the named insured rejects it in writing, and the PIP the law requires an insurer to provide is $2,500 per person. Uninsured and underinsured motorist cover is not required either: the insurer must offer it, and it can be rejected in writing. Drivers who need proof of future financial responsibility after a serious violation file an SR-22 with the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the filing is usually kept for two years from the date of the most recent conviction or judgment. 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 Texas
Texas is an at-fault, or tort, state. After a crash, the driver who caused it — or rather that driver's insurer — pays for the other driver's injuries, and the injured driver has to show the other driver was at fault. Texas uses proportionate responsibility: a recovery is reduced by the injured driver's own share of fault, and a driver who is 51% or more at fault recovers nothing at all. There is no threshold limiting the right to sue for pain and suffering.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist cover is the protection against the other driver's lack of cover, and its position in Texas is: it is not required, but the insurer must offer it, and it can be rejected in writing. A driver hit by an uninsured driver claims on their own uninsured motorist cover, where they carry it, and uninsured motorist cover also answers for a hit-and-run driver. 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. Texas is not a no-fault state, so there is no threshold on suing, even though PIP is included and pays first. The at-fault driver's liability pays for injuries, once fault is established — subject to the proportionate responsibility rule above. 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 Texas
No state law in Texas 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.
A standard homeowners policy in Texas 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. Texas adds its own points: on the coast a standard policy will often not cover wind and hail, and the Texas FAIR Plan is the route where no private insurer will cover the home. The site's Texas home insurance quote guide works through the quote, the coastal wind and hail position and the FAIR Plan in full, and the site's Texas flood insurance guide works from an NFIP benchmark of $966 a year — a benchmark, not a quote, because the address decides the price.
The deductible deserves the same attention in Texas 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 Texas
Health cover in Texas runs through the marketplace: Texas uses the federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov. Enroll through HealthCare.gov for marketplace cover and premium tax credits. The site's enrollment and subsidies guide walks through the ACA route. 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 Texas: Texas has not expanded Medicaid, so adults can qualify only under the state's existing categories, and the coverage gap that exists in non-expansion states applies here: adults without dependent children generally do not qualify on income alone. 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 Texas: Short-term health plans are sold in Texas, with an initial term of under 12 months and up to 36 months in total under state law, although most policies actually on sale are three or four months. A Texan who needs cover for a gap should still compare a short-term plan against the marketplace, COBRA and Medicaid before buying, because a short-term plan does not cover pre-existing conditions or essential health benefits in the way a marketplace plan does. 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 Texas is regulated by the Texas Department of Insurance. 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.
Before buying any policy in Texas, run the checks in this order. First, the licence: is the insurer licensed in Texas, 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 Texas buying a first policy. She starts with the state minimums — 30/60/25 — 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, and checks what the extra cover costs. She reads the fault section above and notes that her own PIP pays first unless she rejected it in writing, that she can sue for pain and suffering without clearing a threshold, and that Texas's proportionate responsibility rule means a driver 51% or more at fault recovers nothing. She checks the home policy 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 whether a short-term plan is even sold in Texas — 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.