What You May Need to Know About Florida Senate Bill 54

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Florida has traditionally had a no-fault insurance system called Personal Injury Protection (PIP). All Florida drivers were required in the past to purchase PIP coverage when registering any type of vehicle in the state. This type of coverage meant that any Florida individual injured in an accident would be held responsible for covering the cost of his or her own injuries, whether or not they were the person at fault in the accident. Did you know that Florida Senate Bill 54 repeals the PIP system of coverage and under the bill, Florida drivers will now be required to carry regular bodily injury coverage instead? Let us review three things you need to know about the bill. 

1. Senate Bill 54 Repeals PIP. The intent of PIP was to make payments for medical costs quicker by having each driver’s own insurer cover the costs, rather than forcing an injured party to wait until they were able to go through the court system to determine if the other party was “at fault” in an accident and thus required to pay for the other party’s costs. Since PIP has been repealed, this will no longer be the system for obtaining coverage of costs incurred in a car accident. 

2. Bodily Injury Coverage Is Now Required. All Florida residents will have to carry bodily injury coverage at a minimum of $25,000 on their car insurance policy. Unfortunately, the cost of this type of policy is likely to increase auto insurance rates for the average Floridian.

3. Medical Payments Coverage Remains Optional. One of the big things you need to know about Florida Senate Bill 54 is that while bodily injury coverage is required, medical payments coverage is still optional. This means that drivers might purchase a car insurance policy that covers the cost of paying for bodily injury, but not for all medical payments. A $5,000 death benefit that can be included as part of MedPay, the medical payments system, also remains optional.

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