State May Get More Uninsured:
Some Predict 2 Million Without Car Insurance After PIP's Death
Paige St. John
Tallahassee Democrat
Sep 4, 2007
Florida highway safety officials warned Gov. Charlie Crist months ago the end of the state's no-fault auto-insurance laws would mean a potential 2 million uninsured motorists on Florida roads.
The law's Oct. 1 demise also would force the closure of dozens of driver's license offices and limit money for Highway Patrol officers' overtime pay.
If the state's Personal Injury Protection law expires, Florida will no longer collect, among other things, $150 fines to reinstate licenses after drivers' insurance has lapsed. That amounts to $29 million a year, according to documents from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
Lawmakers have promised to partly plug the budget hole, if it happens, but the warning delivered by DHSMV Director Electra Theodorides-Bustle in April is a dramatically darker view than the moderated public statements she makes now.
The dire predictions also explain the drive behind efforts to come up with some new form of mandatory car insurance in Florida.
Department records show Theodorides-Bustle's agency over the past four weeks has helped draft legislation to fill the gap when Florida's no-fault auto-insurance law expires. The mandate for motorists to buy medical coverage - known as PIP - would be replaced by a mandate to buy bodily injury protection.
There is a difference for consumers. PIP pays medical bills no matter who causes an accident. Bodily injury protection costs more and only pays out to victims of at-fault drivers.
However, the Senate chairman in charge of the committee working with the state highway safety agency on that bill says he opposes requiring bodily injury insurance coverage of Florida drivers - partly because it dashes hope of resurrecting Florida's no-fault medical coverage.
"I don't favor that as a solution, and if I do that, then nothing else will get done, so I just flat said no," said Senate Banking and Insurance Chairman Bill Posey, R-Rockledge.
Posey pointed out that swapping bodily injury protection for PIP plays into the hands of insurers that sell the more expensive coverage.
He has submitted his own bill proposal to re-enact Florida's no-fault law but with medical fee limits based at 200 percent of what Medicare pays, and controls on the medical settings where treatment can take place.
Elsewhere, the prospect of making bodily injury coverage the new Florida mandate is gaining favor.
"I share grave concern as to what is going to happen to the people of this state in the event we do not impose some form of mandatory insurance coverage," said Rep. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs.
He shopped his proposed mandatory coverage bill past House and Senate leaders last week, as well as the governor. With the exception of Posey, Simmons said, "They were receptive."
He also said he has support from the state's trial attorneys as well as State Farm, though a coalition of insurers that includes State Farm on Friday continued to disagree with state regulators and insisted the state could require motorists to carry proof of insurance even if PIP is not replaced.
Crist told reporters last week he is not overly concerned if the Legislature fails to act, though his administration is still pressing.
Theodorides-Bustle waved a red flag in late April, warning the governor's office in e-mails and staff analyses that without mandatory insurance, "we have a potential 2 million uninsured motorists on our roads, which concerns me for a litany of reasons."
Among them, she warned that her agency would have to shutter 36 driver's license offices to absorb $29 million in lost reinstatement fees no longer collected for violations of the mandatory insurance law.
Her analysis also warned of the possibility of $4 million less available for overtime pay to the Florida Highway Patrol, the elimination of 55 jobs in driver education and mobile-home administration programs, and cutting 56 jobs in the Bureau of Financial Responsibility, further reducing the state's ability to monitor drivers whose licenses are suspended for drinking or frequent accidents.