Florida state Sen. Tom Lee recently introduced a bill that would repeal Florida’s requirement for personal injury protection (PIP) – commonly known as no-fault coverage – for motorists.
“While well-intentioned anecdotally, Florida’s motor vehicle no-fault law has resulted in widespread fraud, abuse and a complex litigation process,” Lee said. “Since its enactment [in the 1970s], the value of the PIP benefit has eroded, while Florida’s auto insurance premiums continue to rise.”
The proposed legislation would require auto insurance to include coverage for bodily injury and medical payments. Floridians would be required to purchase bodily injury liability coverage at limits of $20,000 per person ($40,000 per incident), $10,000 for property damage and $5,000 in medical-payments coverage.
“More than 92 percent of Florida drivers currently have some form of bodily injury coverage,” Lee added. “For many, PIP is a duplicative coverage that burdens drivers with paying for accidents they didn’t cause. Good drivers are being punished by having to cover rate hikes, even if they never get in an accident, to pay for the negligence of other drivers and the general PIP costs in their region.”
Senate Bill 150 includes phase-in language that increases the bodily injury liability coverage requirements every two years until it reaches $30,000 for one person and $60,000 per incident.
“The legislature tried year after year to fix Florida’s overpriced, no-fault system,” Lee said. “By switching to a tort-based system, we increase the simplicity of litigation, provide more adequate liability coverage at a reasonable price and preserve some important protections for health care providers.”
