Increasing percentage of uninsured drivers adding to Florida’s car insurance woes for now

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/