Florida continues to have some of the highest auto insurance premiums in the country, despite the state passing reforms years ago intended to reduce prices.
In 2012, Gov. Rick Scott signed a reform package that would have stopped fraud related to the state’s no-fault car insurance coverage, Personal Injury Protection (PIP).
NBC 6 obtained records from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and found that overall premiums have spiked 13% since January 2015. The records also revealed that PIP premiums also increased by 14%.
"I think the reforms have not been as effective as they had hoped," said outgoing insurance commissioner Kevin McCarty. "I do think there's still fraud in the system and I'm not sure I could make the argument that PIP is worth saving."
McCarty and the state’s insurance industry believe that the increases in premiums were, in part, caused by a surge in automobile crashes over the last two years in Florida. Data from the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles corroborates this idea, showing an 8.3% increase in crashes during 2014 and a roughly 7.1% increase in 2015.
"The rate of accidents has gone up and it's gone up dramatically," observed Jeanne Salvatore of the Insurance Information Institute. "And that's why the cost of insurance has gone up."
According to data from the Office of Insurance Regulation, insurers in Florida are taking in more premiums than actually paying out. Motorists paid $9.9 billion in PIP premiums in the last three years—insurer only paid just over $6 billion, in comparison.
