Auto insurance industry’s claim that Andary case will impact auto insurance rates is completely baseless

Auto insurance industry’s claim that Andary case will impact auto insurance rates is completely baseless

Hutchings: We hope Supreme Court will not disturb landmark decision

LANSING, Mich.—(Sept. 9, 2022)— In response to news that a major auto insurance decision will be appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, Devin Hutchings—the president of CPAN—today released the following statement.

“It’s important for the public to understand the terrible injustice that the Andary Court of Appeals’ decision so appropriately addresses. The insurance industry’s attempt to retroactively apply the medical benefit cuts contained in Michigan’s new auto no-fault insurance law to those patients who sustained severe injury years before the law went into effect, has been devastating. Thousands of Michigan families who purchased auto insurance policies that did not contain these severe benefit reductions have been subjected to a cruel rule change that has deprived them of the essential care that they had been receiving; that they were depending upon; and that they had previously paid premiums to secure. It is indeed uplifting to see our court system protect Michigan consumers and disabled people by not allowing their vested legal rights to be taken away by inappropriately applied legislation.

Unfortunately, the insurance industry has decided to appeal the Andary decision to the Supreme Court in furtherance of its totally baseless claim that this decision will interfere with the premium reducing objectives of the 2019 auto insurance law reforms. The fact of the matter is that the insurance industry has never come close to proving that stripping existing patients of their medical benefits has anything whatsoever to do with significantly reducing premiums for consumers in the future. In reality, there is no such connection. Whether or not the new law will achieve meaningful premium reductions going forward, will depend upon how well it performs with respect to future consumers and future patients. Moreover, the recent $400 MCCA premium rebate, touted by the insurance industry in the Andary case as being a product of the new law, was not anything that was mandated by that legislation. Rather, it was likely the result of an independent decision by the insurance executives who run the MCCA to better leverage the industry’s position regarding the legal issues raised in the Andary litigation. In truth, such a rebate could have been made years ago, when knowledgeable observers warned that the MCCA was overfunded as a result of years of collecting unnecessarily high premiums.

CPAN is hopeful that the Supreme Court will not disturb the landmark Andary decision.”