Uninsured Motorist in Florida

[ownyourfuture]

In my state, underinsured/uninsured is mandatory.
The state recently okayed drivers licenses for undocumented people.
Told us we'd all be safer that way.

I contacted my American Family agent and asked him if the amount I pay for that (around $80 per year) would now be dropping ?

"I am not sure what impact it will have at this time. The actuaries/state product director have not informed the agents of changes to the coverages based on this bill yet. A price decrease would be welcomed"

I won't hold my breath.

 

[old medic]

I am thinking about dropping my Uninsured Motorist coverage with Progressive.

I would be thinking about dropping Progressive.

 

[retire48in2018]

In the states that we have lived - if you have comprehensive insurance, than UI basically covers your deductible if there’s an accident caused by uninsured.

Medical - UIM - basically covers health insurance deductible and potentially cover something that regular health insurance won’t (or limited) such as additional physical therapy.

UIM would not cover additional passengers - according to our agent in this state.

Obviously YMMV - check your state.

It’s $50/year here.

 

[athena53]

IIRC, my insurance company made me sign a form when I declined the coverage. It must be a real money maker for them since they only strongly discouraged me from having the highest deductible allowed ($2,000) on my vehicles.

That's because they don't want you to claim you had NO IDEA you had a $2,000 deductible or weren't protected from uninsured/underinsured drivers when an accident happens. Insurance rates are highly regulated and trust me, when you request a rate increase they look for every reason your need for an increase might possibly have been over-stated and ignore any assumptions where you might have understated it.

I'm in MO and my auto coverage went up more than I expected- the biggest chunk of the increase was UM/UIM. I need the limits because I have Umbrella coverage that also covers UM/UIM.

This situation just keeps getting worse- it's political suicide to push to increase the minimum limits requirements ($10K pp/$20K/accident in some states, which is a joke) so more are underinsured and if you increase the limits more will go without coverage. When I started out in the actuarial field in 1975, UM ran about $3/year.

If I didn't have the requirement for Umbrella coverage, the most compelling point for me would be protecting my passengers. Another thought: yes, Medicare would cover my medical expenses if I were injured by someone with 10/20 limits and no assets, but now the burden is on the taxpayers. I guess I'm doing my duty as a citizen by protecing Medicare.

 

[Badger]

I live in Fl and have had USAA auto insurance but no uninsured motorist for quite a few years now. Medicare and TriCare for Life should cover any medical bills.
The people in Florida who are really in jeopardy are pedestrians and bike riders. We are in the top 3 in the country for those deaths and #1 in Florida in the city where I live.

Cheers!

 

[teej1985]

In the states that we have lived - if you have comprehensive insurance, than UI basically covers your deductible if there’s an accident caused by uninsured.

Medical - UIM - basically covers health insurance deductible and potentially cover something that regular health insurance won’t (or limited) such as additional physical therapy.

UIM would not cover additional passengers - according to our agent in this state.

Obviously YMMV - check your state.

It’s $50/year here.

If damage is caused by another driver, it would be collision not comprehensive that covers your vehicle.

UIM bodily coverage isn't just going to cover your health insurance deductible, but also coinsurance, pain and suffering and lost wages.

 

[Dtail]

We spend our winters in Florida, unless it's absolutely necessary, we stay home from Friday night until Monday at noon.This seems when most or at least a lot more of the ding dongs are behind the wheel. I've never seen worse driving skills anywhere else in the US.

Agree on the bad driving skills, although the native born Floridians just say that is because of the influx of out of state drivers moving in.
I say BS, as the drivers are just worse in general down here. Too much texting and switching lanes.

 

[Dtail]

I, on the other hand, wait until after dark, or at least until after the Early Bird specials are over. I find the really bad drivers are the oldsters, but they tend to not drive as much after dark. But I agree with you about the driving skills in FL.

Respectively disagree at least in my area, which is not a retirement haven. Mostly see young drivers at the accident scenes.

 

[Dash man]

Agree on the bad driving skills, although the native born Floridians just say that is because of the influx of out of state drivers moving in.

I say BS, as the drivers are just worse in general down here. Too much texting and switching lanes.

A lot of the crazy drivers I see during the winter months have Florida license plates. I realize they could be 6 months there and 6 up north, but the younger ones are likely full time Florida residents.

 

[Dtail]

It appears that Florida is one of the worst, with over 20% of motorists being uninsured.

Uninsured motorist statistics and facts 2022

Perhaps if Florida enforced a yearly car motor vehicle certification like most states, then the drivers would be enforced to get insurance, although could drop it after the test.

 

[Northforker]

A lot of the crazy drivers I see during the winter months have Florida license plates. I realize they could be 6 months there and 6 up north, but the younger ones are likely full time Florida residents.

The bad drivers are from many demographics. There are the New York plates rolling down I-95 at 85=90 mph and lane changing like a formula 1 driver. There are the newly minted "citizens" that are experiencing big city heavy traffic for the first time. There are the elderly snowbirds with deteriorating reaction times just trying to get to their destination and back home. There is the local "Florida man" that remembers the good old days and drives like it's 1972 and it's his road after all anyway. Regardless, there is so much traffic during morning rush, evening rush, weekend traffic, etc. that we must be on high alert at all times. We winter on the St John's river and Saturday and Sunday brings out the "Orlando Navy", bad boating skills too! Time to sit by the pool and only fish monday through friday.

 

[Walt34]

Perhaps if Florida enforced a yearly car motor vehicle certification like most states, then the drivers would be enforced to get insurance, although could drop it after the test.

That's exactly what happens in WV, which also has mandatory insurance. So the person pays for one month of insurance to get the certificate of insurance, registers his junker, then lets the insurance lapse because [insert favorite sob story here] and then gets drunk or stoned or both and then sends eight people to the hospital.

And we all know who pays for all that....

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Perhaps if Florida enforced a yearly car motor vehicle certification like most states, then the drivers would be enforced to get insurance, although could drop it after the test.

You have to certify every renewal of your tags.... not how another certification would help. People drive on expired/swapped/stolen tags, cancel insurance, etc. Driving, while a privilege, is also "necessary" for many and if they cannot legally drive they do anyway and it's hard for an illegal driver to get insurance -like they would! Cost is one factor but so is legal status, license suspension, etc.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

I've thought about dropping UIM before and this thread has me relooking. I rarely have passengers and anyone I associate with has decent medical insurance. UIM is for incidents that I'm not liable but the liable party is inadequately covered and thus more of a courtesy for my passengers to make their life easier (If I was liable my liability would protect me). For me, I have my own HI. UIM is a significant portion of my insurance bill so from a "I might get sued and lose" (as opposed to a incurring a loss from the incident) is there any reason for me to have it.. it doesn't protect me but just provides a payment if someone without resources harms me. Correct?

 

[freedomatlast]

I've never had UIM and don't plan to get it for the reasons OP noted. It doesn't make financial sense to me if you have good medical coverage otherwise.

 

[scrabbler1]

In many states, UM and UIM are sold together as a single, combined coverage. So, you can't really opt out of UIM without opting out of UM, if UM isn't mandatory already.

UIM is a tricky coverage, and the way it applies can vary from state to state. In many states, it acts as a fill-in coverage, the difference in limits between your (higher) UIM and the other driver's (lower) BI limit. In some states, it acts as an add-on coverage, with your UIM limits appended to the other driver's BI limit to create a total possible amount you can recover from both sources. In a very few states, there is a type of UIM which is a hybrid of the 2 types I just described. UIM will cost the least in my first scenario, the most of my second scenario, and something in between in the last scenario.

 

[athena53]

In the states that we have lived - if you have comprehensive insurance, than UI basically covers your deductible if there’s an accident caused by uninsured.

Medical - UIM - basically covers health insurance deductible and potentially cover something that regular health insurance won’t (or limited) such as additional physical therapy.

UIM would not cover additional passengers - according to our agent in this state.

Be careful of the term "comprehensive". It sounds like "this covers anything". It does not. The old term was "other than collision". It covers only damage to your care and only that NOT cause by collision- so hail, theft, etc. No bodily injury at all.

Medical Payments coverage is a small amount $5,000- $10,000 or so- that you can offer to someone injured as a result of your driving without regard to fault. It gives them a fast payment for minor injuries without getting lawyers involved.

 

[Kings over Queens]

Dropping the coverage isn't something I'd recommend.

Putting aside medical payments, you have the ability to collect for pain & suffering, economic loss, etc., basically everything you are required to provide to others in the form of Bodily Injury coverage if you caused the accident. All the UM/UIM does is switch roles, and now you are eligible to collect against your policy for the loss caused by injury due to the fault of the driver who had no coverage or low limits of coverage.

It was mentioned earlier, you might want to consider dropping Progressive. They are a difficult company on a good day, and the adversarial nature of UM/UIM claims only reinforces their negative reputation.

Keep in mind, when you file a UM/UIM claim, the insurance carrier essentially steps into the shoes of the other driver and defends them against your action. YOUR insurance company is defending someone else against your action. Not everyone understands that and assume that you file a claim and your carrier is just going to pay it. The coverage doesn't work that way.

 

[Ncc1701]

I would not go without it. Especially in Florida as around 13% of Florida Men & Women are uninsured.

It's actually 20%

 

[jim584672]

In many states, UM and UIM are sold together as a single, combined coverage. So, you can't really opt out of UIM without opting out of UM, if UM isn't mandatory already.

UIM is a tricky coverage, and the way it applies can vary from state to state. In many states, it acts as a fill-in coverage, the difference in limits between your (higher) UIM and the other driver's (lower) BI limit. In some states, it acts as an add-on coverage, with your UIM limits appended to the other driver's BI limit to create a total possible amount you can recover from both sources. In a very few states, there is a type of UIM which is a hybrid of the 2 types I just described. UIM will cost the least in my first scenario, the most of my second scenario, and something in between in the last scenario.

I had to make a special request to remove the non-mandatory SUM coverage because NY will only allow it if you jump through some hoops.

 

[bobandsherry]

It's actually 20%

According to Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, as of April 2023 it was 6.31%.


https://www.flhsmv.gov/insurance/uninsured-motorist-rate/

 

[scrabbler1]

Back in my working days in the actuarial field, specializing in personal auto, we began in the 1990s rating UM by tier, not statewide. A rating tier is 1 or more rating territories combined together if their UM bodily injury and regular BI data were reasonably similar. Publicized statewide averages would not be relevant, especially if you live in an urban area where the uninsured motorist data is worse.

Before we began doing this, we had most states rated statewide for UM. Afterward, most states had UM rated by tier. Rating by tier is more accurate, of course, because otherwise you will have the lower-cost rural areas subsidizing the higher-cost urban areas.

 

[isisdave]

If I own a car and have UM insurance, does it cover me if I am a passenger in someone else's car, and there is an accident with an UM, and the someone else does not have UM insurance?

Would it cover my grandchild who was with me? How about my next door neighbor's cousin's bookie (i.e., any random person), who is in the car with me and invited by me?

If not, is anyone going to pay for these peoples' economic losses?

 

[athena53]

I'm pretty sure all of the above are included. You need to read the definition of "insured person" carefully. Some policies, especially from the on-line bargain carriers, don't use standard forms and chisel away at these definitions.

 

[audreyh1]

Really - your UM/UIM covers you as a passenger in someone else’s car?