The History of How Much Is Car Insurance In Florida

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How Much Is Car Insurance In Florida

Steve BousquetTimes/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

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Published: May 20, 2016

Updated: May 22, 2016 at 02:23 AM

TALLAHASSEE — Floridians are active added and accepting into a lot added accidents, and they're advantageous the bulk with ascent car allowance ante that are already amid the nation's highest.

Premiums accept risen 14 percent statewide back Jan. 1 of aftermost year — about the exact adverse of the all-over TV commercials alms accumulation of 15 percent or added on car insurance.

"People are active more," said above accompaniment Allowance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, "and accidents accept added adequate with that number."

On McCarty's watch, which concluded May 2, the Office of Allowance Regulation accustomed dozens of bulk increases in the accomplished year and a half. The boilerplate for the 25 companies that address best car advantage in Florida is a 13.8 percent increase.

"They consistently accession my rates," said Donna Dugan, 67, of St. Petersburg, a claims-free chump of Accompaniment Farm for 35 years whose action aloof went up by $120 a year.

"That's a lot of money, abnormally back you are on Social Security that did not get a accession this year," she told Gov. Rick Scott in an email. "When is anyone activity to advice the customer or affliction about them?"

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Scott consistently touts Florida's "low bulk of living" back talking about citizenry advance or college education, but the car allowance numbers acquaint a altered story.

Since 1972, Florida has appropriate all drivers to backpack $10,000 of claimed abrasion protection, or PIP, to awning accessory blow claims, behindhand of who was at fault.

Known as no-fault insurance, it was an advance to bright the courts of accident-related lawsuits and get payments to victims faster.

Four years ago, Scott and the Legislature retooled the law to advance aggressive PIP fraud, abnormally in Tampa and Miami, that was abhorrent for accretion premiums.

But afterwards ante fell in the aboriginal two years afterwards the bill's passage, PIP premiums accept risen by about 15 percent back Jan. 1 of aftermost year. One above carrier, Allstate Fire & Casualty, has aloft PIP ante 40 percent.

PIP accounts for about division of a absolute premium's cost, the accompaniment has said.

Lynne McChristian, the Florida adumbrative of the Allowance Information Institute, an industry group, said the boilerplate no-fault affirmation in the fourth division of 2015 was $8,280, about analogous the bulk of $8,520 in 2011 afore the new law took effect.

McChristian said car allowance ante are ascent all over the country, abnormally in the Southeast, and she cited the bead in the unemployment bulk as the capital acumen why crashes are increasing. "It's an adventitious aftereffect of low unemployment," she said. "You accept added bodies with jobs to go to."

The accompaniment is allotment a $125,000 abstraction as it renews a abiding agitation over whether no-fault should be repealed as it has in best added states.

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"It's time to attending at added options," said Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg. He filed a bill in the 2016 affair that would accept replaced PIP with college actual abrasion coverage, but it never acquired traction.

Brandes said abandoning no-fault is complicated in Tallahassee because it involves three actual able aggressive interests: allowance companies, attorneys and the medical industry.

As Florida's citizenry gets bigger every year, added bodies are active and accompaniment abstracts shows they are active added than ever. They collection a almanac 551 actor afar anniversary day in 2014, the best contempo abstracts available.

Across the state, car accidents rose aftermost year by about 9 percent from the year before, according to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which promotes safe active with beat campaigns such as "Distracted Active Awareness Month" in April.

Crashes added by 14.6 percent in Broward, 12.7 percent in Hillsborough and 9.5 percent in Pinellas. Miami-Dade, cited in abundant surveys as the home of some of the affliction drivers anywhere, appear a bashful 5.4 percent fasten in accidents.

"There's aloof added traffic," said Detective Alvaro Zabaleta of the Miami-Dade police. "The added time you absorb on the road, the added acceptable you are to accept an accident."

Crashes acquired by absent active additionally are on the rise, alike afterwards access of a new law in 2013 that fabricated texting while active illegal.

More accidents agency added claims, which allowance companies use to absolve college premiums.

State Farm, the ascendant insurer in Florida with $2.4 billion in premiums aftermost year, said its losses accept been aggressive for several years.

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"We've apparent an access in claims costs," aggregation agent Michal Brower said. "We charge appropriately bout our ante to the bulk of accident we're insuring."

According to insure.com, Florida's car allowance ante were fourth accomplished amid all states at an boilerplate of $1,742 in 2015. Alone Michigan, Montana and Louisiana were higher.

In a contempo filing with the state, Allstate Fire & Casualty proposed the use of a breadth appraisement system, agnate to what it uses in New York state, to articulation premiums added carefully to how abundant its barter drive.

"Risk is awful activated to the cardinal of afar you drive anniversary year," Allstate backer Cathy Mayo said. "This change will acquiesce us to bulk added accurately for a risk."

Florida has a taxpayer-funded customer apostle who looks out for policyholders, but Sha'ron James, who works for Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, has not questioned a car allowance bulk hike. She has alone intervened in homeowners and workers' advantage bulk cases.

Asked why by the Times/Herald, she said she will pay afterpiece absorption to car allowance bulk filings.

"That is article we may do affective forward," James said. "We will absolutely be demography a afterpiece attending at it."

Contact Steve Bousquet at [email protected] or (850) 224-7263. Follow @stevebousquet.

How Much Is Car Insurance In Florida