Most drivers assume that carrying the state minimum means being insured. In Florida that assumption is unusually expensive, because of what the minimum leaves out rather than what it includes.
What the minimum actually requires
Two coverages, and only two. Personal Injury Protection, which pays a share of your own medical costs regardless of fault, and Property Damage Liability, which pays for damage you do to someone else’s property. Both sit at $10,000 for most drivers.
What is missing from that list is Bodily Injury Liability, the coverage that pays for injuries you cause to another person. Florida does not compel most drivers to carry any. It is one of the very few states that does not, and the omission is not widely understood by the people it exposes.
Where that lands after a crash
PIP covers a portion of your own treatment and stops. If you are at fault and the other driver is seriously hurt, their medical bills, their lost income and any judgment against you are yours personally. A single crash of that kind reaches past a policy and into savings, wages and, in some circumstances, a home.
The second consequence is quieter. Driving without bodily injury liability can put your licence and registration at risk after an at-fault injury crash, because Florida’s financial responsibility law applies after the fact even where the compulsory law did not apply before it.
What closing it costs
Less than most people expect, and that is the point worth making. Bodily injury liability is priced off the same rating factors as the rest of the policy, and for a driver with a clean record it is frequently the cheapest meaningful coverage on the page. We quote it as a matter of course on every auto quote we write, at more than one limit, so the figure is in front of you rather than described.
Bring the declarations page from your current policy to any of the four offices and we will tell you in a few minutes whether you carry it and what it would cost if you do not.