Guest Author
In 1971, Florida enacted auto insurance laws designed for a world of muscle cars, pay phones, and gas under 40 cents a gallon. Fifty-four years later, the world has moved on — but our laws haven’t.
Today, Floridians pay nearly $29 billion a year for auto insurance — the highest per-vehicle cost in the country. The average Florida driver pays nearly $2,400 annually, compared to a national average of roughly $1,700. But the real issue isn’t just the price. It’s how unfairly the burden is distributed.
Start with uninsured motorists: over one in five drivers in Florida (20.4%) have no insurance at all, according to the Insurance Research Council. That’s the sixth-highest rate in the U.S., well above the national average of 14%. If you get hit by one of these drivers, your own policy — or your wallet — has to pick up the slack.
Then there are underinsured motorists: drivers who technically meet the state’s minimum legal requirements — just $10,000 in personal injury protection and $10,000 in property damage — but whose coverage isn’t remotely enough to handle the average crash. In the U.S., the average auto accident results in more than $23,000 in damages and injuries, and that figure can be much higher in Florida’s urban areas with high litigation and medical costs.
So, whether you’re hit by someone with no insurance or not nearly enough, the result is the same: you’re on the hook.
It’s like dining at a restaurant where 20% of the guests walked out on their checks, and the rest ordered off the kids’ menu. You ordered responsibly, but the manager just spreads the shortfall across your tab.
This isn’t an accident. We built the system this way.
Florida’s laws make it easy to avoid full participation and expensive to follow the rules. The penalty for driving without insurance? A $150 fine and a brief license suspension, often lifted as soon as the driver pays. Meanwhile, the required minimums haven’t changed in decades and no longer reflect real-world costs.
We know reforms can work. After major tort reform passed in 2023, insurers lowered rates: GEICO by 10.5%, Progressive by 8.1%, and State Farm by 6%. Lawsuits dropped. The system responded. That’s the power of smart policy.
Now it’s time to act again.
The Legislature should fund a university-led research initiative to chart a new course, examining how to responsibly raise coverage limits, reduce uninsured and underinsured driving, and modernize enforcement.
We already have a road map. A 2016 study by Pinnacle Actuarial Resources projected a 5.6% to 8.1% drop in premiums if Florida eliminated PIP and required bodily injury coverage instead. But the same study warned that some low-income or elderly drivers carrying only minimum coverage could see their premiums jump by over 70%.
That’s the challenge. Reform isn’t simple — it’s structural. And it needs data, not dogma.
Florida should also require the Office of Insurance Regulation to publish an annual Best Practices Report, tracking uninsured and underinsured rates, crash costs, claims frequency, and affordability. We regulate hospitals, utilities, and banks with rigor. Why not the second-largest household expense for Florida families?
Other states offer lessons:
— Oklahoma slashed its uninsured driver rate from 26% to under 12% using license plate readers and real enforcement.
— Tennessee used the same tools but failed to close enforcement loopholes. Its uninsured rate is back above 20%.
— Texas encourages usage-based insurance. Drivers who opt in and drive safely can save up to 30%.
Florida could go even further: let drivers enroll in telematics programs to power usage-based insurance as an alternative to paying state traffic fines. Reward good behavior instead of just punishing bad driving.
The truth is, our auto insurance system isn’t expensive because insurers are greedy. It’s expensive because our laws are outdated, enforcement is weak, and risk is unfairly shared between the insured and the unaccountable.
Every month, responsible drivers pay their premiums and hope it’s enough. But in Florida, they’re playing a game of financial Russian roulette. The odds? One in five drivers is uninsured, and many more are dangerously underinsured.
This isn’t a system. It’s a rigged gamble. And Tallahassee knows it.
We have the data. We have success stories. What we lack is the courage to fix a system that punishes the responsible and protects the reckless.
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Former Sen. Jeff Brandes is the founder and president of the Florida Policy Project.
