When asked about the legislative session-long effort of the insurance industry to convince lawmakers either to abandon the state's auto personal injury protection insurance or repeal the program, Andy Martinez of Nationwide bluntly summed up the final outcome, “There was no reform bill.” Martinez had at least one high profile to back him up, namely Gov. Jeb Bush, who vetoed nearly $1.1 million in funding to increase efforts to reduce fraud in the system. Bush offered little explanation for the veto, remarking only that “there's an obvious reason,” for striking the funding. The industry now expects Bush to veto the PIP bill in its entirety, which will force lawmakers, attorneys, and physicians back to the drawing board next year.

Under the bill, lawmakers had decided to sidestep the issue by extending a sunset provision that would automatically end the program from October 2007 until January 2009, while kicking in an additional $1.2 million to beef up the state's resources to combat fraud. But it appears that Bush, along with others, felt the bill would do little to reform the PIP system and reduce policyholders' rates. If the veto comes as expected, the January 2009 date will be struck down giving the legislation one more legislative session to debate the issue.

Why this outcome? Roughly speaking, by the time the bill passed it was so watered down that it would have no positive financial effect on the industry. Representing the American Insurance Association, Cecil Pearce openly lobbied Bush to veto the bill and let PIP expire. “The reforms necessary to make PIP a viable coverage — a medical fee schedule, medical utilization controls, attorney fee and bad faith reforms, and strengthening the tort threshold — did not pass this year,” he said in a letter to the governor. “Therefore, we believe the sunset to be the best solution.”