Under state law, you must purchase an Illinois auto insurance policy for any vehicle that you drive. The state can verify that you have insurance if you get stopped and an officer requests your insurance card, or you may be requested to provide your insurance information as part of Illinois' random insurance verification program. In this program, the state mails out insurance questionnaires to licensed drivers chosen at random. You must respond to the questionnaire by providing your insurance information to the state. The state will then contact your insurance company to verify that your policy is active. If you don't respond, or if your insurance company does not verify that you are insured, your license could be suspended. In order to satisfy Illinois' insurance law, your policy must have the following coverages and limits:

• Bodily injury liability to cover up to $20,000 of damage per person and $40,000 per accident.

• Uninsured motorist coverage, to cover up to $20,000 per person and $40,000 per accident. 

This is the minimum amount of coverage required under Illinois law. However, if you have minimum coverage and you cause an accident in which the damages exceed your coverage limits, you are not off the hook. The injured driver can sue you for the unpaid damages. Therefore, you may want to purchase additional coverage or coverage with higher limits. Anyone who's been to the hospital recently can tell you that medical bills have skyrocketed in recent years. Auto repair costs have also risen recently, and it's not unusual for damages from a crash to exceed the minimum coverage limits required by law.