Gov. Rick Scott met with constituents Thursday at the Orlando Police Department Gun and Training Center.
Scott spoke about growing concerns regarding personal injury protection and auto insurance in Florida.
Personal injury protection compensates the policyholder for bodily injury damages occurring in an accident by providing payment for medical and hospital expenses, child care expenses, bodily injury caused by a covered wreck, loss of services and funeral expenses.
Insurance companies paid out $2.7 billion in personal injury protection claims in 2010. That is an increase of $900 million from one year ago. State leaders attributed the increase to fraud.
A representative for Scott said auto insurance premiums will increase by 29 percent for Florida consumers each year until something is done to fix personal injury protection fraud. Despite a decrease in the number of crashes, the representative said the number of personal injury protection claims and the costs of those claims has climbed.
Personal injury protection reform is a legislative priority, Scott said.
Scott’s visit came on the same day that five people were arrested in Orlando for staging auto accidents to get money. The arrests were made by the Division of Insurance Fraud.