Florida medical payment and bodily injury insurance have been the topic of conversation lately as the Florida legislature redefines personal injury protection (PIP) insurance. Brian Labovick, a car accident attorney in South Florida who specializes in auto accident cases, explains the terms:

Medical payment insurance. Medical payments insurance covers exactly what it says – the medical payments that need to be paid after an automobile accident. Now, some people say, “What about my health insurance?” Well, certainly your health insurance should pay for your medical bills after an automobile crash. A lot of people don’t have health insurance and this is a very inexpensive way to get a very good amount of health insurance for a fairly reasonable price. Medical payments is a fairly inexpensive insurance and you can buy it for any amount that you want; $5,000, $20,000, $100,000 and the premium obviously goes up and down depending on how much coverage you buy.

Bodily injury insurance: how Florida differs from other states

Bodily injury insurance is that insurance that you buy (as a driver) that if you hurt somebody, will pay that person for their future pain and suffering. According to Labovick:

Florida differs from many other states is that most (or many) other states have mandatory amounts of bodily injury insurance, so many states have the requirement that you buy bodily injury and protect the world against your own driving if you want the right to drive in that state. Florida only has a voluntary provision.

Example

We asked Labovick to provide an example of how bodily injury insurance works. He explained, “God forbid that you run into somebody at 80 miles an hour and you break their arm and puncture a lung and they need an operation, you have probably permanently injured that person. They can get over that threshold and sue you. This insurance (bodily injury) will protect you from that and will pay that person whatever the amount of the coverage is, up to it, to protect you from a lawsuit.”

“Let’s say you bought $100,000 of insurance and that person is injured—broke a leg—and your insurance agent will adjust that claim and pay that person, hypothetically, $35,000 and the claim will go away. You won’t get sued.”