The Legislature might repeal of Florida’s Motor Car No-Fault Regulation and its Private Damage Safety (PIP) insurance coverage requirement.
Miami Herald
Florida is likely one of the most costly states for auto insurance coverage. Charges are growing due to the complexity and value of latest automobiles, the rising value of used automobiles and a rise in auto crashes. But Florida lawmakers are contemplating a coverage that may solely add to the price of insurance coverage that hundreds of thousands of drivers pay.
The Legislature as soon as once more is contemplating the repeal of Florida’s Motor Car No-Fault Regulation and its Private Damage Safety (PIP) insurance coverage requirement. Payments filed within the Senate and Home would change PIP with obligatory bodily harm protection; the Senate invoice goes one step additional and creates a flawed third-party insurance coverage bad-faith commonplace.
If the laws to repeal PIP turns into regulation, Florida motorists’ charges will rise, notably for individuals who purchase the minimal insurance coverage required and those that purchase bodily-injury protection at quantities under what the proposed regulation requires. For low-coverage drivers, the estimated value improve is 48%, in accordance with a research commissioned by the Florida Workplace of Insurance coverage Regulation. These drivers can least afford a rise, and it’s estimated that a whole lot of hundreds of further Floridians will drive illegally — with out insurance coverage — due to this improve. Right this moment, an estimated one in 5 automobiles in Florida doesn’t carry insurance coverage, nearly the very best charge within the nation, and this may worsen if HB 1525 and SB 150 turn out to be regulation.
PIP is $10,000 medical protection that pays in your accidents in case you are in a automotive crash, no matter whether or not you’re at fault. Bodily-injury insurance coverage covers the victims of a automotive crash, not the at-fault driver. To recuperate bodily-injury advantages, an injured particular person might must file a lawsuit.
The proposed regulation would require motorists to purchase $25,000 in bodily-injury protection and $5,000 in funeral advantages. Insurers should additionally supply medical-payments protection to every insured. This protection is just like PIP in that it pays for medical bills with out regard to fault. For street-legal drivers who reject medical-payments protection, these payments would require them to pay for $15,000 in further protection (a $5,000 funeral profit is included in PIP).
Forcing Floridians to spend extra for extra auto insurance coverage is the mistaken factor to do. This method ignores the non-public market, the place you should purchase bodily-injury and medical-payments protection in any quantity you need.
There was no outcry from customers concerning the auto-insurance market. To this point, not one shopper has spoken in favor of this laws in any committee. There isn’t any turbulence in Florida’s auto-insurance market, not like the property market, which is in disaster. Whereas there are issues with PIP — notably fraud and overbilling — these issues might be readily addressed by means of laws.
It’s vital to notice that there isn’t a information to help proponents’ arguments that this may scale back charges. The truth is, information factors to vital charge will increase for hundreds of thousands of drivers who purchase low limits. Even the Workplace of Insurance coverage Regulation has said that charges will improve if we transfer to the proposed obligatory bodily-injury system.
Who advantages if PIP is repealed? Auto-accident attorneys — the only constituency that has been calling for repeal of PIP and changing it with more-expensive bodily-injury protection. These legal professionals need extra lawsuits to churn out their lawyer charges. And beneath the proposed system, that may occur.
The members of the Private Insurance coverage Federation of Florida imagine any repeal of PIP should think about methods to alleviate potential charge will increase. Significant reforms to Florida’s deeply unfair bad-faith system or addressing the issue of inflated medical damages ought to be included to assist scale back the price of claims and associated lawsuits.
Gov. Ron DeSantis was proper to veto final yr’s PIP repeal laws. This yr’s payments are not any higher. Creating a much bigger drawback by elevating auto-insurance charges by nearly 50% can’t be the answer to PIP issues. The Legislature ought to put a cease to HB 1525 and SB 150.
Michael Carlson is the CEO of the Private Insurance coverage Federation of Florida. Scott Matiyow is the vp of the Federation’s Legislative & Regulatory Affairs.
