House Insurance Committee Passes Legislation Effectively Ending Michigan’s Auto No-Fault System
CPAN President John Cornack blasts “one-sided” legislation
Lansing – The Republican-controlled House Insurance Committee approved HB 4612 today on a 10-5 party line vote. The legislation cuts Michigan’s current lifetime auto injury coverage to $1 million and places several other restrictions on care provided to auto accident survivors.
Insurance Committee Chair Rep. Pete Lund misspoke when he began the meeting by calling the “Insurance Company Meeting” to order. CPAN President John Cornack noted this Freudian slip and had the following comment:
“The ‘Insurance Company Meeting’ was a far more appropriate name for the meeting that took place today because HB 4612 was written to increase insurance company profits at the expense of Michigan’s most seriously injured people – many of whom were not afforded the opportunity to testify today.”
Cornack states that the bill was “poorly written from the start” and no amount of amendments could fix it.
“CPAN members are extremely disappointed that the insurance committee would pass legislation to make significant changes to Michigan’s insurance system without first having the necessary data from the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association, or understanding the impact to health care providers or the cost increase to the Medicaid system,” said Cornack.
CPAN is currently engaged in a legal battle with the MCCA to open its data to the public.
And the coalition’s research has shown that thousands of jobs in the post-acute injury rehabilitation field are at risk and millions of dollars in insurance industry costs would be shifted to Medicaid if caps are placed on auto injury care.
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Learn more about the fight to protect Michigan’s auto no-fault system at ProtectNoFault.org
