An estimated 1 in 5 Florida drivers would not have auto insurance coverage. That’s too many!
However with Uninsured Motorist protection, you don’t must pay the worth for his or her errors.
A hidden hazard awaits those that come to Florida. And no, it’s not hurricanes.
It’s underinsured drivers.
In accordance with 2023 estimates, about 1 in 5 Florida drivers don’t carry any auto insurance coverage. But it surely isn’t simply uninsured drivers it is advisable fear about—many extra are underinsured, carrying solely the naked minimal of insurance coverage protection required by regulation.
An accident with an uninsured or underinsured driver can rapidly depart you caught paying medical bills, property damages, and even misplaced wages out-of-pocket. Fortuitously, there’s a dependable approach to defend your self: Uninsured Motorist Protection in Florida.
On this information, we’ll clarify precisely what uninsured motorist protection is, why it’s particularly vital right here in Florida, and show you how to decide if you actually need it (spoiler alert: you in all probability do!).
Why Florida’s State Minimums Aren’t Sufficient
In Florida, you’re required by regulation to hold a minimal stage of auto insurance coverage protection earlier than you’ll be able to register a motorcar. Particularly, two primary forms of coverages:
- $10,000 of Private Damage Safety (PIP) and
- $10,000 of Property Injury Legal responsibility (PDL).
At first look, $10,000 could sound like loads of cash, however let’s look nearer.
Property Injury Legal responsibility covers damages you trigger to different individuals’s property. Should you dent somebody’s bicycle, certain, $10,000 is lots. However what occurs for those who whole a brand-new Audi or Tesla?
As soon as your coverage restrict is exhausted, you’re personally liable for each extra greenback. Your insurance coverage will solely cowl as much as your chosen limits, and that may result in wage garnishment or different monetary hardships.
Now let’s take a look at Private Damage Safety (PIP). Florida’s obligatory PIP protection pays your individual medical bills after an accident—no matter who brought on it—but it surely doesn’t cowl accidents you trigger to others. That’s proper: you’ll be able to legally drive with zero bodily damage legal responsibility insurance coverage, leaving anybody you injure fully uncovered by your coverage.
Drivers caught with out the required insurance coverage face penalties like fines or a suspended license. Sadly, these penalties do nothing to guard you or cowl your medical bills for those who’re injured in an accident with an uninsured driver.
In different phrases, the regulation may punish them, however you’re nonetheless left paying the worth.
Merely put, Florida’s auto insurance coverage minimums are nowhere close to satisfactory safety for your self or others on the street. Whereas many drivers select these minimal limits to save cash, the monetary penalties of an accident can far exceed these primary coverages.
Fortuitously, you’ve a greater choice.
What’s Uninsured Motorist Protection (UM)?
Uninsured Motorist Protection (usually abbreviated as “UM protection”) protects you and your passengers when an accident includes an uninsured or underinsured driver. Whereas Florida doesn’t presently require uninsured motorist protection by regulation, it’s important nonetheless.
The one sort of UM protection supplied in Florida is Uninsured Motorist Bodily Damage (UMBI). It covers medical bills, ache and struggling, and misplaced wages for you and your passengers for those who’re injured by a driver with out ample legal responsibility insurance coverage. This consists of accidents involving successful and run driver.
UM protection ensures you’re financially protected if one other driver’s lack of auto insurance coverage leaves you holding medical payments. With out it, you might have restricted choices to file a declare to get better damages and bills.
“However I Have Well being Insurance coverage!”
Many drivers mistakenly assume their private medical health insurance will absolutely defend them after an accident with an uninsured or underinsured driver. Sadly, that’s not the case.
Whereas your medical health insurance may assist pay a few of your medical bills, it falls brief in a number of vital areas after a automotive accident:
- Misplaced wages: If accidents out of your accident power you to overlook work, medical health insurance supplies no compensation for the revenue you lose (PIP does!)
- Deductibles and copays: Even with wonderful well being protection, you’ll possible face important out-of-pocket prices for deductibles, copays, or remedies not absolutely lined by your coverage.
- Protection gaps: Medical health insurance not often covers sure important accident-related remedies, reminiscent of intensive bodily remedy, ongoing rehabilitation, or specialised care required for extreme accidents.
- The “gory” stuff: Uninsured Motorist Bodily Damage can cowl issues like lack of providers, lack of limb, and different everlasting damage or incapacity. Whereas medical health insurance may cowl among the medical remedy vital, UMC can worth the damage or incapacity and pay you for it.
Solely Uninsured Motorist Protection fills these essential gaps, compensating you immediately for medical prices, misplaced revenue, and the ache and struggling brought on by an accident with an uninsured or underinsured driver. Your private well being plan is essential, but it surely’s not sufficient to totally defend you on Florida’s roads.
Forms of Uninsured Motorist Protection: Stacked vs. Unstacked
In Florida, there are two methods you should purchase uninsured motorist protection: stacked or unstacked.
Stacked Uninsured Motorist Protection
Stacked UM protection permits you to mix—or “stack”—the protection limits of a number of insured automobiles in your coverage. For instance, when you’ve got two vehicles, every with a $100,000 UM protection restrict, stacking offers you entry to as much as $200,000 per accident.
Even for those who personal only one automobile, stacked protection can nonetheless be extremely helpful. As an illustration, once you’re driving a brief substitute automobile (like a rental automotive), your stacked protection nonetheless applies, successfully supplying you with additional safety wherever you drive.
Unstacked Uninsured Motorist Protection
With unstacked UM protection, your protection limits apply individually per automobile and can’t be mixed. In case your coverage has a restrict of $50,000 per particular person and $100,000 per accident, these quantities are mounted per automobile, no matter what number of automobiles you insure.
Your premiums will probably be barely greater with stacked protection, but it surely additionally supplies broader safety, particularly beneficial when coping with extreme accidents or when a number of insured automobiles are concerned.
It’s essential to fastidiously think about your loved ones’s wants, your variety of automobiles, and your danger profile. An impartial insurance coverage agent from Harry Levine Insurance coverage can assist you select the kind of UM protection that most closely fits your distinctive state of affairs.
Don’t Pay For Somebody Else’s Mistake
Nonetheless questioning for those who want uninsured motorist protection? In Florida, the reply is sort of at all times sure. But, even within the midst of a arduous insurance coverage marketmany Florida drivers are selecting to slash their auto insurance coverage insurance policies to save cash.
Sadly, even the most secure drivers can’t management the actions of others on the street. Intoxicated, reckless, inexperienced, and uninsured drivers are a actuality on Central Florida roads—it’s solely a matter of time earlier than you encounter one.
Uninsured Motorist protection in Florida is important, but it surely’s only one a part of complete safety. At Harry Levine Insurance coverage, we place protection above all else, and we expressly warning each shopper towards driving with out UM protection.
Our philosophy is easy: Don’t store for insurance coverage solely based mostly on worth. Select insurance policies that ship the protection you want and gained’t depart you stranded financially after an auto accident.
Prepared to make sure you’re absolutely protected? Get a personalised quote on our web site or contact us at present. We look ahead to serving you!
