Like being stuck in a recurring dream, the people of Florida continue to face the vexing question of what to do with a no-fault automobile insurance system that forces them to pay more for insurance than necessary.

In the search for solutions, insurers have always insisted that the system get back to its original intent. When first enacted in the 1970s, no-fault auto insurance was intended to address the underlying cost drivers in a tort-liability system that had made insurance more expensive than necessary. No-fault supporters pointed to benefits such as reduced non-economic damage compensation, increased compensation for injury victims, less compensation for personal injury attorneys, and faster recovery of out-of-pocket expenses by accident victims.

What has developed in the intervening 30 years is a seriously flawed system seemingly immune to repeated attempts at reform.

Once again the problem is spiking. During each of the last three years for which the industry has complete statistics, Florida has had the highest number of questionable auto claims resulting from staged/caused accidents in the nation. With 1,446 questionable auto claims in 2009, Florida accounted for 30.1 percent of the national total; nearly double that of second-place New York (765), a state with roughly the same population as Florida. Florida also had four of the 10 cities with the highest rates of questionable claims in the U.S.: Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Hialeah.

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