The personal injury protection in your Florida auto insurance policy pays for the medical bills, lost income and other expenses associated with an injury that happens to you and certain passengers you have during a car accident. This coverage is required for all Florida drivers, and it’s a popular benefit, but one that is often purchased in minimal amounts in order to satisfy regulations alone. The Dangers of Minimal PIP
Buying just the minimum amount of PIP required by law is not a savvy financial move. In Florida, your insurer will likely set your PIP limits at $10,000. Although, with the cost of medical treatment expecting to rise as much as 8.5 percent in 2012, that $10,000 limit will soon be outdated if it isn’t already.
Instead of crossing your fingers and hoping that the state minimums provide sufficient protection for you and your passengers, it may be smarter to increase your limits. You can do so by adding additional PIP coverage or adding Medical Payments coverage.
Options when Increasing PIP
When you increase your PIP coverage, you may choose coverage that excludes ‘work loss.’ That means that the additional PIP benefit will not reimburse you or your family members for any income lost as a result of the injury. This will make the expense of the added PIP easier to bear, but if you don’t have sufficient vacation or sick time benefits or a disability policy, you could be creating further financial problems by choosing this option.
Another important consideration in PIP coverage is the deductible you’ve chosen. You can choose from a PIP benefit with no deductible, or a deductible between $250 and $1,000. While your deductible might seem affordable at first glance, it’s important to remember that auto insurance deductibles are out-of-pocket expenses that the insured is not responsible for per year, but per incident. So if you have multiple incidents within a year you may need to pay your PIP deductible several times.
If you have questions about potential shortfalls in your PIP coverage, or any other aspect of your insurance plan, let us know. We can talk to you about the average amount of the claims in your area and determine whether your current Miami Auto Insurance is sufficient to meet that average and, if not, how the experts at Allstar Direct Insurance can fix it.
