An estimated 1 in 5 Florida drivers wouldn’t have auto insurance coverage. That’s too many!
However with Uninsured Motorist protection, you don’t need to pay the value 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. However it 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 go away you caught paying medical bills, property damages, and even misplaced wages out-of-pocket. Fortuitously, there’s a dependable method to shield your self: Uninsured Motorist Protection in Florida.
On this information, we’ll clarify precisely what uninsured motorist protection is, why it’s particularly important right here in Florida, and assist you decide if you really want it (spoiler alert: you most likely 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 possibly can register a motorcar. Particularly, two primary forms of coverages:
- $10,000 of Private Damage Safety (PIP) and
- $10,000 of Property Harm Legal responsibility (PDL).
At first look, $10,000 might sound like loads of cash, however let’s look nearer.
Property Harm Legal responsibility covers damages you trigger to different folks’s property. Should you dent somebody’s bicycle, positive, $10,000 is lots. However what occurs if you happen to 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 necessary PIP protection pays your individual medical bills after an accident—no matter who induced it—however it doesn’t cowl accidents you trigger to others. That’s proper: you possibly can legally drive with zero bodily harm legal responsibility insurance coverage, leaving anybody you injure utterly 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 if you happen to’re injured in an accident with an uninsured driver.
In different phrases, the regulation would possibly punish them, however you’re nonetheless left paying the value.
Merely put, Florida’s auto insurance coverage minimums are nowhere close to sufficient safety for your self or others on the highway. 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 possibility.
What’s Uninsured Motorist Protection (UM)?
Uninsured Motorist Protection (usually abbreviated as “UM protection”) protects you and your passengers when an accident entails an uninsured or underinsured driver. Whereas Florida doesn’t at the moment require uninsured motorist protection by regulation, it’s important nonetheless.
The one sort of UM protection provided in Florida is Uninsured Motorist Bodily Damage (UMBI). It covers medical bills, ache and struggling, and misplaced wages for you and your passengers if you happen to’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 will have restricted choices to file a declare to recuperate damages and bills.
“However I Have Well being Insurance coverage!”
Many drivers mistakenly assume their private medical insurance will totally shield them after an accident with an uninsured or underinsured driver. Sadly, that’s not the case.
Whereas your medical insurance would possibly assist pay a few of your medical bills, it falls quick in a number of important areas after a automobile accident:
- Misplaced wages: If accidents out of your accident pressure you to overlook work, medical insurance offers no compensation for the revenue you lose (PIP does!)
- Deductibles and copays: Even with wonderful well being protection, you’ll possible face vital out-of-pocket prices for deductibles, copays, or therapies not totally lined by your coverage.
- Protection gaps: Medical health insurance not often covers sure important accident-related therapies, equivalent to 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 harm or incapacity. Whereas medical insurance would possibly cowl among the medical therapy vital, UMC can worth the harm or incapacity and pay you for it.
Solely Uninsured Motorist Protection fills these essential gaps, compensating you straight 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, however it’s not sufficient to totally shield you on Florida’s roads.
Sorts of Uninsured Motorist Protection: Stacked vs. Unstacked
In Florida, there are two methods you should buy uninsured motorist protection: stacked or unstacked.
Stacked Uninsured Motorist Protection
Stacked UM protection allows you to mix—or “stack”—the protection limits of a number of insured autos in your coverage. For instance, if in case you have two automobiles, every with a $100,000 UM protection restrict, stacking offers you entry to as much as $200,000 per accident.
Even if you happen to personal only one car, stacked protection can nonetheless be extremely useful. As an example, if you’re driving a short lived alternative car (like a rental automobile), your stacked protection nonetheless applies, successfully providing you with additional safety wherever you drive.
Unstacked Uninsured Motorist Protection
With unstacked UM protection, your protection limits apply individually per car 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 car, no matter what number of autos you insure.
Your premiums will likely be barely greater with stacked protection, however it additionally offers broader safety, particularly useful when coping with extreme accidents or when a number of insured autos are concerned.
It’s essential to rigorously think about your loved ones’s wants, your variety of autos, and your danger profile. An unbiased insurance coverage agent from Harry Levine Insurance coverage will help you select the kind of UM protection that most closely fits your distinctive scenario.
Don’t Pay For Somebody Else’s Mistake
Nonetheless questioning if you happen to want uninsured motorist protection? In Florida, the reply is sort of all the time sure. But, even within the midst of a laborious 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 highway. 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 crucial, however it’s only one a part of complete safety. At Harry Levine Insurance coverage, we place protection above all else, and we expressly warning each consumer towards driving with out UM protection.
Our philosophy is straightforward: Don’t store for insurance coverage solely based mostly on worth. Select insurance policies that ship the protection you want and received’t go away you stranded financially after an auto accident.
Prepared to make sure you’re totally protected? Get a personalised quote on our web site or contact us right this moment. We stay up for serving you!
