Anne Geggis – March 9, 2025

Just like property insurance, what Florida drivers are paying for car insurance stands out nationally and part of what’s fueling those prices is the high number of motorists driving without insurance.

Nationally, the portion of drivers on the road without car insurance started accelerating with the pandemic in 2020 and it’s kept increasing, according to the Insurance Research Council, an organization the insurance industry supports. The same study also shows that Florida drivers are revving up the trend more than the average.

In 2022, an estimated 16% of Florida drivers were uninsured, ranking the state at 15th nationally for the proportion among the state’s 16.4 million licensed drivers. Now the latest figures, from 2023, reveal one in five drivers in Florida is uninsured. Only five states and the District of Columbia have higher rates: Mississippi has the highest proportion, followed by New Mexico, D.C., Michigan, Tennessee and Missouri, according to the study.

The state of Florida appears to calculate uninsured drivers differently than the Insurance Research Council. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says a little less than 6% of state drivers are uninsured, according to data from this month.

Still, insurance industry officials are raising the alarm.

“It’s a very concerning trend to the industry that the uninsured rate continues to go up,” said Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications for the industry-backed Insurance Information Institute, which is affiliated with the Insurance Research Council. “The laws are very clear in the state of Florida. Insurance is not discretionary.”

Ironically enough, though, no other state requires a lower level of insurance coverage to get behind the wheel, except for New Hampshire. And even though the Granite State doesn’t require it, 90% of residents there are insured, according to the study.

Most other states require that motorists sign on for at least $25,000 worth of bodily injury coverage. That compares to Florida, which requires only $10,000 in personal injury protection and $10,000 for property damage. North Carolina just increased its required minimums so that motorists must get coverage that would pay $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident when there’s bodily injury and $50,000 for property damage.

Even with Florida’s low bar for meeting minimum liability requirements, residents in only three other states — New York, New Jersey and Nevada — pay more than Floridians to meet the minimum coverage requirement for driving in their state, according to Bankrate, an online financial guide for consumers breaking down pros and cons of mortgages, credit cards and investments.

Florida’s current insurance coverage minimums have been in place since the 1970s.

Legislation was passed in 2021 that would have raised those minimums and repealed the state’s “no fault” laws, but Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed it. The debate may be teeing up again — two similar bills have been introduced for the Florida legislature’s session now underway that would increase the minimum coverage and repeal the state’s no-fault accident law.

Changing the current system is a tough call, Friedlander observed, given that increasing the minimum insurance required would likely make getting on the road fully legal even more expensive when so many have already chosen to skip it because of the current high cost.

“I understand why they are not moving forward on it,” Friedlander said.

Lots of individual variables go into calculating the cost that the consumer sees on their car insurance bill, such as driving history, traffic citations and make and model of the car insured. In March, Bankrate found that the average annual cost of “full coverage” in Florida is the most of any other state, coming in at $4,210 per year. That bill is calculated using a 40-year-old with a good credit score and clean driving record who commutes five days a week in a 2023 Toyota Camry as a customer.

That policy would offer much more coverage than the minimum the state requires. That annual insurance payment of $4,210 would buy, in the event of an accident, $100,000 for personal injury coverage; bodily injury liability of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident; and uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage at $100,000 per person and $300,000 for an accident. It would also pay up to $50,000 for property damage after the $500 deductible is paid.

Driver gathering evidence after an accident. Courtesy of Ginnis, Karthen, & Zeinick 

Why are the premiums so high?

Besides the high probability of running into an uninsured motorist, the same factors that bedevil the state’s high property insurance costs — hurricanes and a high rate of lawsuits — also drive the car insurance market, according to Dustyne Bryant, who develops curriculum for insurance professionals and hosted a podcast “Awkward Insurance” for four years.

But leaders who support the current system say, just like with property insurance, automotive insurance premiums should be dropping soon as recent changes to lawsuit laws to stem the tide of litigation take hold.

DeSantis, at a news conference last month, highlighted filings that show car insurance carriers Geico, State Farm and Progressive have lowered their rates.

Costs remain high right now because the full effect of 2023 legislation that stops attorneys from suing over minimal amounts won’t be entirely realized until 2028, industry observers say. That’s when insurance companies see their litigation risk dropping, says William Large, president of the Florida Justice Reform Institute. He noted that before changes to the state’s tort laws, which his organization supported, lawyers were suing over amounts as infinitesimal as interest charges.

“We fixed PIP (personal injury protection) — that’s my opinion, and I believe it’s going to be proven out within the next five years,” Large said. “I and others want to see data come in. So why go change this before the data has really come in?”

A damaged vehicle after a car accident on the road. Courtesy of Ginnis, Karthen, & Zeinick

The sponsors of the legislation couldn’t be reached for comment.

Uninsured motorist coverage part of typical package

Still, given the one-in-five-chance that one might have an accident with an uninsured driver in Florida, Coral Springs insurance agent Andy Kasten says he strongly recommends that his clients buy uninsured motorist coverage.

“If someone causes you a lot of bodily injury, if they don’t have insurance, at least you can somewhat be made whole,” said Kasten, president of Creative Financial Property & Casualty Group.

In the current climate, that will add about 13% to the total, typical bill, Kasten said.

Anne Geggis is the insurance reporter at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/business/2025/03/09/meeting-the-states-required-minimums-is-costing-motorists-more-than-what-others-pay-for-full-coverag/81607838007/

Conservative hopes for new Florida Supreme Court fading in Senate

Members of the Florida Supreme Court listen to a speech by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Tuesday,
March 5, 2019 in the Florida House during a joint session of the Florida Legislature.From left, Chief Justice
Charles T. Canady, Ricky Polston, Jorge Labarga, Alan Lawson, Barbara Lagoa, and Robert J. Luck.
(Scott Keeler/Tampa Bay Times/TNS)

By John Kennedy
GateHouse Capital Bureau
Posted Apr 26, 2019 at 2:34 PM

Abortion legislation and other bills that would revisit earlier high-court rulings on workers compensation and medical malpractice lawsuit limits have hit a roadblock in the more moderate Senate.

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis’s appointment of three new, conservative justices to the Florida Supreme Court raised expectations that an array of red-meat policies would swiftly emerge from the Republican-controlled Legislature.

But as lawmakers enter the final scheduled week of the 2019 session, only a dramatic expansion of private school vouchers, using taxpayer dollars, appears poised to win approval and then face a likely legal test before the new-look court.

Controversial abortion legislation and other bills that would revisit earlier high-court rulings on workers compensation and medical malpractice lawsuit limits have hit a roadblock in the more moderate Senate.

“With a very different Florida Supreme Court in place, we hoped the Legislature would revisit important workers’ compensation and medical malpractice laws invalidated by the previous court,” said William Large, president of the Florida Justice Reform Institute, a business-backed advocacy organization.

“Unfortunately, the Legislature missed an opportunity by failing to do so,” he added.

John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, also said he was disappointed that the Senate is apparently unwilling to take up a House-backed measure that would demand that minors get notarized permission from their parents or a court before obtaining an abortion.

The measure, if approved, would undoubtedly be challenged as clashing with a 30-year-old Florida Supreme Court decision, which ruled the state constitution’s privacy provision bans such requirements.

But Stemberger and many other social conservatives are hoping that the restructured Supreme Court, now packed with conservative justices, could have a different view of consent laws.

“This court is going to see its rightful role in interpreting state law, and won’t just be following earlier, judge-made decisions,” Stemberger said.

Stemberger on Friday sent an email appeal to conservative activists urging they contact Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, and DeSantis, demanding that the Senate take up the parental consent bill.

With a number of states enacting abortion restrictions this year, mostly prompted by a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court, Stemberger said Florida could “become the only conservative state in the country not to pass pro-life legislation.”

Also unlikely to win Senate support is the House’s push for restoring caps on “pain and suffering” damages awarded in medical malpractice cases, which the Supreme Court in 2017 found unconstitutional.

The Legislature also hasn’t advanced legislation sought by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida and the National Federation of Independent Business, which seeks to reinstate caps on attorneys’ fees in workers compensation cases, declared unconstitutional by justices in 2016.

Instead, the Republican-led Legislature’s support for a new voucher program, dubbed Family Empowerment Scholarships, looks bound to be the lone significant test of whether the recast court is willing to rethink past decisions.

The scholarships would send taxpayer dollars to private schools, a redirection which even most supporters acknowledge would defy a 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision.

Thousands of students from families earning as much as $77,250 annually could qualify — although lower-income families would have preferred status. But financing the program with general revenue has been seized on by supporters of traditional public schools, including the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.

The FEA spearheaded the legal challenge which led to the 2006 decision overturning then-Gov. Jeb Bush’s first-in-the-nation statewide private school voucher program for steering tax dollars to private schools.

The court’s 5-2 ruling found Bush’s Opportunity Scholarship program violated the state constitution’s requirement that Florida have a “uniform” system of public schools for all students.

The decision has guided Republicans in the Legislature who, while steadily expanding school choice options, have avoided voucher proposals that would conflict with the court — until now.

The new voucher legislation is expected to win final approval before lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn May 3.

“If the bill is signed into law, the FEA will be exploring all possible options in response to the new voucher program,” FEA President Fedrick Ingram said of the new Family Empowerment Scholarships. “At this point, nothing is off the table.”

DeSantis’s three new court appointments, Justices Barbara Lagoa, Robert Luck and Carlos Muniz, were named within the governor’s first two weeks in office. They replaced retired Justices Barbara Pariente, Peggy Quince and Fred Lewis, the last justices appointed by a Democratic governor, the late Lawton Chiles.

With the liberal-leaning justices gone from the court, the seven-member panel is widely expected to exert its conservative viewpoints.

But to act, and potentially shape state law into the future, justices need the Legislature to enact measures that could draw legal challenges. In the view of anti-abortion groups and businesses seeking to blunt the risks of costly lawsuits, the Florida Senate isn’t cooperating.

The House has been the more free-swinging conservative chamber for the more than two decades Republicans have controlled the Legislature.

Republican senators bristle when their conservative credentials are questioned, although that chamber is where the powerful trial lawyers association has often fended off lawsuit restrictions and social conservative legislation frequently dies.

State Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, who doubles as chair of the Florida GOP, pushed back when asked about the Senate’s resistance to embracing legislation pushing boundaries — and the Florida Supreme Court.

“I think it’s very conservative,” Gruters said of the Senate. “But you can’t pass every bill every year. I think all in good time.”

Some disappointed by what’s emerging from the Legislature have said election-year politics could be a factor.

Under Florida law, the three new justices will be up for merit retention for the first time on the 2020 presidential ballot, and Republican leaders may be wary of having them become a lightning rod on issues that could further rally the Democratic voting base.

House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami, though, wouldn’t blame the Senate for missing what he called “an opportunity” for the Supreme Court to act.

“Certainly having passed those here in the House, we would’ve loved to see those bills pass and become law,” Oliva said.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20190426/conservative-hopes-for-new-florida-supreme-court-fading-in-senate

PIP car insurance, built to curb lawsuits, spurs record pile instead

Feb 22, 2018
By Charles Elmore, Protecting Your Pocket

A no-fault car insurance system that was supposed to reduce lawsuits in Florida has instead produced an all-time high mountain of more than 60,000 of them in 2017, a new report shows.

Source: Florida Justice Reform Institute report.

That represents a stunning rise of close to 50 percent in one year, according to data from The Florida Justice Reform Institute, a group that says it fights against wasteful litigation.

So are insurers rushing to tell legislators to repeal Florida’s Personal Injury Protection system before the session ends in early March? Guess again.

An insurance industry group never mentions PIP in itsstatement on the lawsuit report and has urged lawmakers to put off repeal another year.

Who benefits from keeping the current system? Florida’s top 25 car insurers have raised PIP rates up to 54 percent since the start of 2017, and on average hiked them 35 percent faster than overall premiums, The Palm Beach Post reported.

Florida drivers pay among the nation’s top six car insurance bills in one of the few states that retain a no-fault system. The state forces drivers to buy $10,000 of PIP to cover the driver’s own injuries in an accident regardless of who is at fault, no matter how much health insurance the consumer already has.

One of the justifications for PIP when it was created the 1970s was to reduce lawsuits after minor car accidents.

Almost half a century later, PIP’s relatively small benefit has hardly changed and in no way kept up with medical inflation, yet it is driving consumer rate increases and, in a final irony, leading the lawsuit parade.

Who’s suing? The lawsuits measured in the report are typically not filed by ordinary drivers but chiropractors, clinics, imaging centers and other medical providers suing insurers to get paid for PIP claims, researchers say.

PIP represents by far the largest source for a type of lawsuit that FJRI officials say is responsible for more than half of the state’s overall insurance litigation and is driving up consumer costs. It’s associated with an arrangement known as “assignment of benefits” or AOB.

It happens when third parties like a repair contractor or medical clinic tell consumers we’ll handle the claim for you if you sign this form assigning us the insurance benefit. It’s not uncommon in health care and other fields. Insurers say the trouble is, Florida’s laws provide too many incentives for some of the third parties take the insurers to court.

Yet you’d never know that PIP was involved in any way from an insurance industry group’s statement on the AOB lawsuit report. The focus is exclusively on property insurance claims representing about one-sixth as many suits compared to PIP, and auto windshield claims representing about a third as many. Insurers say these categories are growing, and PIP repeal must wait for reforms affecting lawyer fees that have stalled in the legislature for half a dozen years and seem likely to deadlock again.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of property and auto glass claims because one-way attorney fees are incentivizing AOB abuse,’’ said Logan McFaddin, the Florida-based regional manager for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. “Legislative reform is desperately needed to curtail the number of fake or inflated claims and lawsuits. Now is the time for legislators to protect Floridians from these bad actors and help reduce insurance costs.”

OK, but how about repealing PIP and lopping off the source of the majority of AOB suits in one stroke? Then pursue additional lawsuit reforms? At least two important insurance lobby groups in Tallahassee say no thanks.

The net effect: drivers keep paying rising premiums to insurers. A state-commissioned actuarial report said drivers could save up to $81 per car if Florida repealed PIP and required bodily-injury liability coverage. A bill that passed the House 88-15 would do that. Florida is one of only two states that do not require BI insurance to make drivers responsible for injuries to others.

A Senate PIP repeal bill remains stuck in committee as the session nears its end. Asked by a Post correspondent about the issue, Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, offered a recap of committee stops with no comment on whether leadership believes it merits further attention or a vote on the floor.

“That bill has moved through one committee in the process with a favorable vote and is now in health and human services appropriations (committee), so it would be up to that committee to decide whether they want to take up the bill in the final time we’re here for session,” Negron said last week. “The short answer would be it’s undetermined.”

Instead of championing a chance for driver savings, insurers put out their own report that said rates would go up 5.3 percent under the House bill. The report prepared by Milliman Inc. for PCI acknowledged it used unverified, unaudited data from a subset of member companies that could be “biased” and chose to ignore any savings from eliminating PIP fraud. A group representing trial attorneys blasted it as not credible and inconsistent with the state report and with consumer savings in other states that dropped no-fault systems, including Colorado and Georgia.

So what’s the story? Insurers raise rates up to 54 percent in a year for PIP. Then lobbyists claim late in the session that rates would also go up under the House repeal plan. They encourage legislators not to believe a state-commissioned actuarial report that said drivers could save an average of near 6 percent on their overall bills after PIP repeal.

Now a report shows PIP is responsible for most of the lawsuits insurers are complaining about. It’s the elephant in the room, the biggest part of the mountain.

But apparently it’s not fit for mention.

 https://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/personal-finance/pip-car-insurance-built-curb-lawsuits-spurs-record-pile-instead/3xqUo92kWjdWjeswEiT8dO/

Workers Comp Fight in State Supreme Court Could have High Stakes