Untouched for four decades, legislation has been introduced in the PA Senate to increase the state’s minimum auto insurance liability limits. Senate Bill 918, sponsored by Sen. Vince Hughes (D-Philadelphia), would essentially double the current state minimum liability limits. To get an idea of what PA residents thought about this proposed Senate Bill, I created a poll on our Facebook fan page to either support or oppose higher auto liability limits.
To my surprise, I was expecting everyone to support higher limits, 12 voters supported the higher limits and 10 voters opposed it. However, it should be noted that the voters did not have any details on the current or proposed liability limits because Facebook has a character limitation for creating poll questions. Thus, this poll was more of an initial reaction since they did not have all the relevant facts.
Supporters from the Facebook poll commented that the current liability limits were too low. They did not want someone with those low minimum coverages hitting their family or property. They also cited that the low liability limits didn’t adequately protect the at-fault driver either, because the current liability insurance coverages could run out quickly if someone was seriously injured.
Those opposed basically did not want the government dictating how much insurance they should buy, but several people did recognize some minimum level of coverage was necessary. They also thought the high liability limits would raise prices and make auto insurance unaffordable for many drivers.
PA Minimum Auto Insurance Facts
Since we do not have a character limitation on our blog here are some relevant facts to help you form your own opinion.
1. The current PA state minimum liability coverages and limits are…
A) Bodily Injury Liability — If you injure someone in a car accident, this coverage pays their medical and rehabilitation expenses and any damages for which you are found liable. The minimum limit is $15,000/$30,000. The $15,000 pays for injuries to one person, while the $30,000 represents the total available for one accident.
B) Property Damage Liability — If you damage someone’s property, for example another person’s new car, in an accident and you are at fault, this coverage pays for it. The state minimum limit is $5,000 of coverage.
2. The proposed liability limits in Senate Bill 918 increases Bodily Injury Liability to $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident and Property Damage Liability to $10,000
3. Here is list of other state minimum liability limits to use as a point of reference for where the current and proposed limits would place PA relative to other states.
What are your thoughts? Would you support or oppose PA increasing the state minimum auto insurance liability limits? We would appreciate hearing your feedback below or on our Facebook poll.