A lending partner asked us to shave $22 a month off her auto policy, and the fastest way to do it was to drop uninsured motorist coverage. We talked her out of it. Eight months later she was hit by a driver with no insurance and no assets, and that coverage paid for her care.
Why Florida is different
Florida is a no-fault state with one of the highest uninsured driver rates in the country, and the minimum required coverage is thin. Drivers must carry Personal Injury Protection and Property Damage Liability, but Bodily Injury Liability is not universally required. That means the driver who hits you may have nothing available to pay for your injuries beyond a small PIP benefit.
PIP typically pays eighty percent of medical expenses up to $10,000, and less if the injury is not classified as an emergency medical condition. A single ambulance ride, imaging, and a short hospital stay can exhaust it before treatment even begins.
What uninsured motorist coverage does
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage steps into the shoes of the at-fault driver's missing liability coverage. It can pay for medical bills beyond PIP, lost wages, and pain and suffering for you and your passengers. It typically follows you as a person, so it can apply when you are in someone else's car or struck as a pedestrian or cyclist.
Stacked versus non-stacked
Florida allows two forms. Stacked coverage multiplies your limit by the number of vehicles on the policy and generally extends to vehicles you do not own. Non-stacked coverage applies a single limit and is cheaper. On a three-car policy with $100,000 in stacked coverage, the available limit can reach $300,000 in a serious claim.
- Match your uninsured motorist limit to your bodily injury liability limit whenever possible.
- Ask what stacking adds in dollars; it is often a modest difference.
- Understand that rejecting the coverage requires a signed form, which many drivers signed without reading.
- If you carry an umbrella policy, ask whether it requires a minimum underlying uninsured motorist limit.
The pattern we see
The coverage people resist is often the coverage that saves them. Liability protects other people; uninsured motorist protects you and your family. When a client tells us their priority is protecting their household, this is usually the first line we make sure is not quietly rejected on the application.
Pull your auto declarations page and look for the uninsured motorist line. If it says rejected, or the limit is lower than your bodily injury limit, get a real diagnosis and we will price the difference across the market.