Jeff Brandes is the founder of the Florida Policy Project.
Repealing a half-century-old no-fault auto insurance law, shrinking the number of uninsured motorists and playing defense against trial-lawyer attempts to weaken legal reforms are the keys to lowering Florida’s car insurance premiums, a new study says.
The report comes from the Florida Policy Project, which was founded by former state Sen. Jeff Brandes. The study by Dr. Lars Powell, director of the Alabama Center for Insurance Information and Research at the University of Alabama, says Florida has the highest average car insurance rates in the nation: $1,625 as of 2022.
Auto premiums in the Sunshine State are not high because of insurance industry greed, according to the Powell study, since the Florida market’s profit margins are among the lowest in the U.S. and the market today is competitive. The study places blame on the state’s high rate of uninsured motorists (about 20.4% in 2023) and the 50-year-old no-fault law, which critics say allows drivers to purchase bare-bones coverage that doesn’t reflect the true costs of traffic accidents in today’s world.
But the report also says there is some good news: The state Legislature’s legal reforms passed in recent years are beginning to pay off.
“Already in 2025, State Farm announced a 6% decrease, Progressive announced an 8.1% decrease and GEICO announced a 10.5% decrease,” the study says. “Litigation related to auto glass repairs has declined. It appears that the repeal of assignment of benefits and one-way attorney fees has contributed to cost savings.”
But Brandes said the statistics that underlie Florida’s auto insurance market prove the system needs an overhaul. With more than two in 10 drivers uninsured and another 25% carrying minimum coverage that won’t pay the costs of an average auto accident, nearly half of Florida drivers are exposing the system to disaster, he told the Florida Record.
“We’re playing Russian roulette with only two chambers in the gun,” Brandes said. “... That’s where Florida finds itself.”
Brandes favors getting rid of the current no-fault system, which is also called Personal Injury Protection (PIP), and calling on the Legislature to fund a new study to find out the best auto insurance policy for the state. Lawmakers also need to raise coverage limits and cut back on the number of uninsured and underinsured drivers, he said.
Under that scenario, uninsured motorists would have to step up and pay their fair share, the under-insured would see some higher costs and those with adequate insurance coverage now would see rates decrease, Brandes said.
“(The current system is) like dining at a restaurant where 20% of the guests walked out on their checks, and the rest ordered off the kids’ menu,” Brandes said in a recent opinion piece. “You ordered responsibly, but the manager just spreads the shortfall across your tab.”
The Powell report urges additional best-practices options to help reduce auto insurance rates in the state. These include a more aggressive use by law enforcement of license plate readers to better identify uninsured motorists, as states such as Oklahoma and Tennessee have done, and giving drivers the option of enrolling in telematics programs.
Such programs, also called usage-based policies, help insurance companies reduce accidents by installing technology in customers’ cars that can monitor real-time driving habits and locations they drive to. Typically, a policyholder would get a discount for voluntarily enrolling in such programs, according to the study.
The study also encourages state officials to install roundabouts at appropriate intersections as a replacement for traffic lights. Such traffic-flow approaches can reduce head-on collisions and T-bone accidents, according to the Powell report.
Caption: Jeff Brandes, founder of the Florida Policy Project, said the current auto insurance system is burdened by a high percentage of uninsured motorists.
Credit: Florida Policy Project
