In recent days, some Florida lawmakers have made long overdue comments about repealing Florida’s No-Fault, or personal injury protection (PIP) law. You may recall that everyone who owns a car in Florida is required to have PIP (assuming the car runs). The purpose of PIP is to provide a minimal level of insurance benefits to people that are involved in a car accident. PIP was designed to pay 80% of medical bills and 60% of lost wages to people that were injured in a car accident. This is true even if you were at fault for the car accident. The policy limit on a standard PIP insurance policy is $10,000.00.
There are several problems with this law. First, if you have health insurance, Medicaid or Medicare, there is no need to have PIP to pay medical bills. The reason? Your health insurance, Medicaid or Medicare would pay the same bills that PIP would pay. Therefore, PIP duplicates the medical insurance that you already have. There is simply no need for PIP.
Second, many people cannot make a claim for lost wages under PIP, and so the lost wage benefits under a PIP policy are often illusory. That is, in order to make a claim for lost wages, a person has to have a job and show proof of income. Retired people do not work. Therefore, retired people cannot make a claim for lost wages. The same problem exists for people who stay at home to raise children, and for people who cannot show pay stubs or proof of income. It is also true for business owners that cannot show a decrease in their income due to an accident. These people cannot make a claim for lost wages, and yet they pay PIP insurance premiums as if they could make such a claim. This is really not fair to such people.
The United States is in the process of implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), sometimes called Obamacare. The ACA requires people to have some form of health insurance. The current thought among some Florida lawmakers is that if people already have health insurance, there is really no need for these same people to also pay for PIP to pay medical bills. PIP is mostly a duplicate insurance coverage that costs people money that they do not need to spend on insurance.
We believe this is sound reasoning. There is no legitimate reason for people to pay for health insurance and to also pay for PIP. We think it is time for Florida to repeal the PIP law.
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