[tom11011]

I was wondering how you Floridians feel about No Fault Auto Insurance. On the surface, it seems to make sense, everyone pays for their own damages thereby eliminating the worry about non insured drivers.

[annerk]

I think that the bigger issue is dealing with uninsured drivers. Instead of simply writing a summons, Florida should do what most other rational states do. No proof of insurance, the vehicle is towed. Bring proof with DL and pay the tow and impound fee, and get your car back. Oh, and you still need to go to court. C an't provide proof that the car was insured to the judge, mandatory one year suspension of DL, no hardship exemptions. Get caught driving during that year, go to jail and pay $1000 fine.

Make it a LOT more expensive to drive without insuranve than the current $100 fine. When it's cheaper to drive without and just pay the fine than it is to get insurance, what incentive do people ahve to insure their vehicle?

Insurance isn't that expensive even for a young male driver as long as they have a clean license and aren't driving a sports car. My son pays about $1000 a year to insure his 10 year old sedan. Hopefully that will drop a bit on the next renewal, as he just turned 25. And for the dumbasses with a bunch of tickets that cause through the roof rates--take the bus.

[newyorker24]

Why should I be forced to carry PIP when I already spend $300 a month on health insurance premiums for a top notch health policy? They should do away with PIP or not require it if you have health insurance. Plus they really need to raise the Property Damage requirement and require Bodily Injury Protection.

What is $10k really going to pay for if you total someone's car? And why shouldn't people be forced to carry coverage that pays my medical bills if they injure me? Sure I can sue them, but what if they don't have anything I can go after?

[tom11011]

What's pip?

[newyorker24]

Originally Posted by tom11011

What's pip?

Personal Injury Protection=No Fault Insurance. PIP is insurance you have to carry to cover your own medical bills regardless of who is at fault.

[Spring Hillian]

Having your health insurance as primary insurance in a motor vehicle accident isn't such a great idea. It would make your health insurance responsible for you medical bills and not your automobile insurance. First, your health insurance plan may not provide coverage for automobile accidents at all, and may not cover all of your family members, some of your bills may not be paid because of deductibles and fee schedules. The biggie is if your health insurance pays your medical bills and you obtain monetary damages in a civil lawsuit, your insurer may have a subrogation interest in which you would be responsible for reimbursement of medical expenses related to an automobile accident which simply put, money that is for your injuries would have to go to pay medical bills that were already paid by insurance. Even though you may potentially have to pay back the medical bills to the insurer, you cannot recover those losses from the person who caused the accident. Therefore there is a significant risk in making health care primary.

[newyorker24]

My health insurance covers auto related medical bills. I've never had a problem with it. Honestly the minimum PIP can't cover all your bills anyway many times. All my relatives also have health insurance.

[Spring Hillian]

^^^^

Yeah, but not everybody does. And if they do, theirs may exclude auto accidents.

[newyorker24]

Originally Posted by Spring Hillian

^^^^

Yeah, but not everybody does. And if they do, theirs may exclude auto accidents.

Which is why people with good insurance shouldn't have to buy it. Most states do not require PIP at all.

[Occifer]

Originally Posted by tom11011

I was wondering how you Floridians feel about No Fault Auto Insurance. On the surface, it seems to make sense, everyone pays for their own damages thereby eliminating the worry about non insured drivers.

Originally Posted by tom11011

What's pip?

You may be confused as to what "no fault" insurance actually is. Lots of people don't understand insurance. "No fault" insurance, (or PIP), covers the first $10,000 of your medical bills in a personal injury claim. Any personal injury claim in excess of $10,000 can still be fought out in court in a lawsuit. If you're badly injured and the other driver doesn't have bodily injury liability insurance then you better have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. Considering that bodily injury liability coverage isn't required in Florida, that's why uninsured motorist coverage is so expensive.

"No fault" insurance has nothing at all to do with property damage. You're still required to carry property damage liability insurance, and whoever is at fault in the crash is responsible for the other driver's property damage. If YOU are at fault in a crash then your property damage liability insurance covers the damage to the car that you hit. It doesn't cover your own damage. In order to get your own damage covered, you need to have collision coverage.

I personally don't like PIP and think Florida should abolish the whole "no fault" requirement. The original goal was to cut down on the number of lawsuits, however the vast majority of the personal injury lawsuits greatly exceed the $10,000 mark. The coverage requirement also hasn't risen commensurately with the cost of medical treatment. If you've ever been to an ER with possible traumatic injury that requires things like x-rays and CT scans, $10,000 doesn't really go that far--especially if you don't have health insurance. Even going to the ER and just getting checked out can generate bills that approach that mark. Any moderate to severe injury is going to cost way more than that to treat, and drivers aren't required to carry bodily injury liability insurance in case that happens. Anyone with assets worth suing is going to carry plenty of liability insurance, however people without any assets aren't going to bother. That sucks for the injured party, as there's not much use in suing someone who doesn't have anything in the first place. That's why electing to have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is so important.