Automobile Insurance in Florida - What Do I Need, What Do I Have?
To register a motor vehicle in Florida, you must show proof of car insurance. When I ask someone what car insurance they have, they say "full coverage." There is no such thing as "full coverage." Maybe they are saying they have the amount required by law. Unfortunately, the automobile insurance required to register a car in Florida is minimal. 
Florida law only requires $10,000 of Personal Injury Protection coverage and $10,000 of Property Damage coverage. The law does not require Bodily Injury, Uninsured Motorist, Collision or any other type of automobile insurance coverage.
If you don't know exactly what coverage you have, you don't know what you are paying for. Automobile insurance may cost several hundred, or several thousand dollars each year. Few people would buy a product at a store for that price without making sure of what they were buying. For some reason, many people pay very little attention to the type and amount of their insurance. Here are the basic types of insurance coverage in Florida: Personal Injury Protection (PIP), Medical Payments (Med-Pay), Comprehensive and Collision (COMP/COLL), Bodily Injury (BI) and, Uninsured and Underinsured (UM/UIM) coverage.
Most people find out what coverage they have only after an accident, of course it is too late at that point. Personal Injury Protection pays approximately 80% of your medical expenses arising out of an automobile accident. If you have a deductible for your PIP, you will have to pay the medical expenses that fall under the deductible out of your own pocket, even if the other driver was at fault and you have health insurance. Florida law allows a deductible as high as $2,000 on your PIP coverage. The monthly premium savings from having no deductible compared to a $2,000 deductible is often not that substantial. If you are in just one accident during your entire life, you will likely pay more money because you chose the high deductible, than if you had paid a slightly higher premium for no PIP deductible.
Medical Payments coverage generally pays the 20% of medical charges that PIP does not pay. If you selected PIP and Medical Payments coverage with no deductible, you would be sure that your initial medical expenses after an accident would be fully covered by your automobile insurance.
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