South Carolina Hasn't Raised Its Auto Insurance Minimums Since 2006- While Insurance Companies Have Tripled Their Profits Since Then

If you drive in South Carolina, the law only requires you to carry $25,000 in coverage per injured person, $50,000 total per accident, and $25,000 for property damage. That's it. That's the floor.

Here's the part that should make you mad: that number hasn't moved since 2006.

Not adjusted for inflation. Not adjusted for what a hospital charges now. Not adjusted for what it costs to fix a modern car with a backup camera and six sensors in the bumper. Frozen. For almost twenty years.

Meanwhile, the insurance companies writing these policies have had one of the best two decades in their history.

Below is the whole story, with the numbers to back it up.

The Law Hasn't Changed Since 2006

South Carolina's minimum liability limits — 25/50/25 — were last set by the legislature in 2006 (Act No. 395), effective for policies starting January 1, 2007. Nineteen years ago.

There was a real push to fix this. In the 2025–2026 legislative session, the Senate's tort reform bill (S.244) included a plan to double the minimums to $50,000/$100,000, phased in over two years so insurers could adjust. It made it through Senate negotiations. Then it stalled in the House. Only a narrower companion bill dealing with liquor liability became law.

So today, in 2026, the minimum is still exactly what it was in 2007.

What $25,000 Should Actually Be Worth Today

Money doesn't hold its value. $25,000 in 2006 doesn't buy what it used to. Here's how far behind it's fallen, using the government's own inflation data and vehicle pricing data:

   What we're measuring

 2006

 Growth by 2026

 What $25K should be today

    General cost of living (CPI)

 $25,000

 +65.7%

 ~$41,400

   Medical costs (the whole reason BI coverage exists)

 $25,000

 +68% to +78%

 ~$42,000–$44,500

   Vehicle repair costs (parts, labor, new sensor tech)

 $25,000

 +130–150%

 Blows right past the cap

   Average price of a new car

 ~$28,000

 +78%

 ~$49,758

  Sit with that last line for a second. In 2006, the $25,000 property damage minimum could almost cover a totaled car. Today, the average new car costs nearly double that. If you total someone's Honda in a fender-bender gone wrong, the minimum doesn't even come close.

And on the bodily injury side — the number that's supposed to cover someone's ER visit, surgery, and lost wages — medical costs alone have grown faster than general inflation. The $25,000 floor was inadequate the day it was frozen, and it's gotten worse every year since.

Meanwhile, the Insurance Companies Are Doing Just Fine

Here's what really gets me. The same industry that lobbies against raising these minimums — the same industry that says higher limits will "raise premiums" and "hurt consumers" — has seen its own profits explode over the exact same period nobody adjusted the minimum for South Carolina drivers.

Look at the top insurers writing policies in this state:

• Progressive — net income went from $1.2 billion in 2007 to $11.3 billion in 2025. That's an increase of 842%.
• GEICO (owned by Berkshire Hathaway) — pretax underwriting profit went from $1.1 billion in 2007 to $6.8 billion in 2025. An increase of 511%.
• Allstate — net income went from $4.6 billion in 2007 to $10.2 billion in 2025. An increase of 122%.
• State Farm, the largest insurer in South Carolina, is a policyholder-owned mutual and doesn't publicly disclose net income the same way — but there's no reason to think its trajectory looks any different from the rest of the industry.

Average that out across the companies that do report numbers, and you're looking at profit growth in the neighborhood of 470% since 2007 — while the amount they're required to pay out to an injured South Carolinian hasn't moved one dollar.

I'm not saying insurance companies shouldn't be profitable. They take on real risk, and a healthy industry matters. But when the industry's profits are growing five, eight, even nine times faster than the coverage floor they're required to sell — something is broken, and it's not the drivers.

What the Minimums Should Actually Be

If we're serious about fixing this, here's where the number should land, depending on how you want to argue it:

• Keep pace with inflation only: $41,000 / $82,000 / $41,000 — the bare minimum ask.
• Match actual medical cost growth: $43,000–$45,000 / $86,000–$90,000 / $45,000+ — this is the number that actually reflects what BI coverage is supposed to pay for.
• The number the Senate already agreed to in 2025: $50,000 / $100,000 / $50,000 — this isn't a hypothetical. Legislators already negotiated this figure. It passed the Senate in some form. It just needs the House to finish the job.

That last one is the realistic target. It's not a new idea. It's not radical. It's a number South Carolina's own legislature already worked out — and it died on a technicality of timing, not a lack of support.



Why This Matters to You

If you carry the state minimum — or if you get hit by someone who does — a serious wreck can wipe out the entire policy limit on medical bills alone, before property damage is even addressed. When that happens, the difference comes out of your own pocket, your own health insurance, or your own underinsured motorist coverage, if you were smart enough to buy it.

The people who wrote the 2006 law didn't get it wrong on purpose. They just never came back to fix it. Twenty years is a long time to leave something broken.

If this matters to you, tell your state representative. Ask them where they stand on S.244's insurance minimums. The number the Senate already agreed to — $50,000/$100,000 — is sitting right there, waiting on the House.

Sources: S.C. Code § 38-77-140 and legislative history; S.C. Dept. of Insurance; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (CPI-U, medical care, motor vehicle repair); Kelley Blue Book/Cox Automotive; company 10-K filings and annual reports (Progressive Corp., The Allstate Corp., Berkshire Hathaway Inc.); S.C. General Assembly bill tracking (S.244, H.3430/Act 42). Figures current as of August 2026.