During Sunshine Week, CPAN Calls for More Transparency Around New Companies Entering Auto Insurance Market

During Sunshine Week, CPAN Calls for More Transparency Around New Companies Entering Auto Insurance Market

 Hoste: ‘Michigan drivers deserve accurate information, not propaganda’  

LANSING, Mich.—(March 13, 2024)— This Sunshine Week, CPAN is calling on the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) to set the record straight about the number of new insurance companies in the market in the wake of the 2019 auto insurance reforms.

“Michiganders have been led to believe that the 2019 reforms created significantly more competition in the auto insurance market, and that simply isn’t the case,” said Tim Hoste, president of CPAN. “Michigan consumers deserve transparency as they navigate the auto insurance market, and DIFS has a responsibility to ensure that drivers are receiving accurate information—not propaganda from the auto insurance industry.”

The Insurance Alliance of Michigan (IAM) and its allies in the Michigan Legislature have claimed that “more than 50” new companies have entered the market since the new auto insurance law passed in 2019—but last year, a CPAN FOIA request to DIFS uncovered that only four new companies have begun actively selling products to consumers. An updated FOIA response from DIFS this January found that no additional companies have begun selling products since then.

While at least 50 new companies have received authorization to sell insurance in Michigan, the overwhelming majority of them are not currently selling products, nor have they filed rates with DIFS. A handful of others touted by IAM are simply new affiliates of companies that were already selling insurance in Michigan, or affiliates that replaced other affiliates.

Only four insurers that were not in the Michigan market before the 2019 law change are now selling in the personal lines auto insurance market—Berkley Insurance Company, Branch Insurance Exchange, Citizens United Reciprocal Exchange (CURE), and Vault Reciprocal Exchange.

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CPAN is a broad bipartisan, Michigan-based coalition whose mission is to be the consumer advocate for auto insurance policyholders, those who have been injured in a motor vehicle crash and the medical providers caring for them, representing them at the Capitol, in the courts, and in the public forum. For more information, please visit www.CPAN.us.