Florida Auto Insurance - No More No Fault

State Farm, Florida's largest auto insurance carrier with more than 1/5th of the market, plans to cut rates by 16 percent on Oct 1. Other companies are expected to follow suit

The price decrease comes with the elimination of Florida's no-fault auto-insurance system, which is set to expire Oct. 1. That likely will prompt price increases elsewhere. Without mandatory no-fault medical coverage, known as personal injury protection, or PIP, motorists and their passengers will no longer automatically have $10,000 worth of insurance per person to pay their medical bills and lost wages from auto accidents.

Florida Health insurance will step in for those who have it. But rate increases for Florida health coverage are already in the works to account for the change.

Meanwhile, some 2.8 million Floridians don't have health insurance coverage. That's a significant number, given that some 94 percent to 96 percent of all drivers are currently insured with the mandatory PIP coverage.

Ending no-fault may end mandatory insurance requirements in Florida to register a car and increase the number of uninsured driving in the road, according to a department official. The lapse of no-fault also is expected to bring additional auto accident-related pain-and-suffering lawsuits to the courts because such actions are barred under the current no-fault law.