Florida Lawmakers Continue to Probe the Viability of PIP Insurance

Florida Dept. of Financial Services officials are currently seeking outside funding to conduct a study weighing the benefits of Florida’s no-fault auto insurance, also known as “PIP” Insurance, and whether the state would be better served to drop the coverage requirement.

In March of 2012, legislation was introduced claiming to eliminate an estimated $1 billion in fraudulent claims, as well as lowering no-fault car insurance bills.  However, Florida’s top insurers have enacted premium increases, in some cases upwards of 40%, since the beginning of 2015.

The goals of this study would be to find the “potential impact to Floridians if the personal injury protection coverage requirements were repealed and replaced with varying levels of bodily injury coverage, or if the current requirements to purchase auto insurance were completely repealed.”  Currently, the state of Florida does not require drivers to carry any bodily injury coverage at all.

Certain sources allege that more than 90 percent of Florida drivers already carry bodily injury coverage.  However, this statistic, if true, is misleading because this percentage of people who carry this type of coverage likely varies greatly in different areas of the state.  Certain areas of South Florida, including Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Weston, Davie and others, generally see a larger population of uninsured or underinsured drivers than many other areas of the state.

It is these areas of South Florida especially, that are most benefitted by the PIP insurance requirement.  Drivers involved in car accidents with uninsured drivers have the automatic benefit of being able to seek medical treatment for these accident related injuries, no matter who is at fault for the accident.  Repealing this requirement would leave many South Florida drivers vulnerable if they experience an accident with an uninsured driver.  In this situation, if a driver does not carry uninsured motorist coverage on their own policy, they may be required to pay out of pocket for costly medical treatment of injuries related to the auto accident.

For discussion on this topic or any other, feel free to contact the Schulman Law Group at (954) 349-3300 or at info@www.schulaw.com