CPAN applauds Wayne County Commission’s unanimous passage of resolution demanding a fix to Michigan’s no-fault law

LANSING, Mich.—(Dec. 17, 2021)— The bipartisan, 15-member Wayne County Commission — Wayne County’s legislative body — this week unanimously passed a resolution calling for an immediate fix to the state’s no-fault auto insurance law. The resolution states: “Despite assurances when the 2019 Act was passed that the law would be fixed later, if necessary, none of the introduced bills [proposing a fix] have even received a hearing.”

The resolution notes that thousands of catastrophically injured county residents “have found it impossible to obtain all the necessary care that they need for basic survival” and states: “In many cases, there has been nowhere else for desperate injured survivors to go but hospitals, which are already severely strained attempting to cope with record numbers of COVID-19 patients.”

“Thousands of Michigan car crash victims and their caregivers have been negatively impacted by changes to the no-fault law that first went into effect in July, and we applaud the Wayne County Commission for standing up for their constituents despite pressure from big auto insurance companies,” said CPAN President Devin Hutchings. “The Wayne County Commission sees the same thing that CPAN sees: The promises of insurance reform have been broken.”

Hutchings said businesses have been forced to close and people have lost critical care.

“Because car crash victims paid their premiums on time each month, they expected that they would have access to catastrophic care for as long as was needed to recover. Instead, their care was yanked away over the summer after the new fee schedule went into effect,” Hutchings said. “This can’t be what our state leaders had in mind when they passed no-fault reform. Lawmakers are the only ones who can bring an end to the catastrophic care crisis and we implore them to listen to their colleagues in Wayne County.”

The Wayne County Commission resolution urges the Michigan Legislature to amend PA 21 of 2019, which enacted auto insurance reforms, to “correct identified deficiencies in the reimbursement cap for services rendered to motor vehicle crash survivors” and preserve surplus money in the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association trust fund for the long-term care of catastrophically injured victims, which is why the fund was created in 1973.  

Governor Gretchen Whitmer recently announced she will tap the MCCA trust fund to issue refunds to all insured Michigan drivers next year, which the resolution said will “further erode” protections for auto accident survivors.

The commissioners noted that they have sent copies of the resolution to Whitmer, State House Speaker Jason Wentworth, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, minority leaders in the House and Senate, members of the Wayne County legislative delegation, and members of the MCCA.

Hutchings pointed to a report issued earlier this month by the University of Michigan, which found that state residents are still paying more for car insurance than anyone else in the country. The racial and geographical disparities that reform was meant to mitigate have also continued unabated, he said.

“A government-mandated price fix gutted the reimbursement rate that auto insurance companies pay to professionals who care for these accident victims as they recover from devastating injuries.

“The reforms causing this catastrophic care crisis have failed to significantly lower premiums for Wayne County drivers, which makes this situation even more infuriating,” Hutchings said.