LANSING -- Today the Michigan Board of Canvassers approved petition language for a ballot drive from the insurance industry-backed group "Stop Overcharging." In response to this petition drive, Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault (CPAN) spokesperson John Truscott issued the following statement:
"CPAN members see this petition drive as nothing more than a cynical ploy by insurance companies to threaten an end run around the legislature that they think will force lawmakers into passing their no-fault decimation bills in the lame duck session -- bills that would severely restrict care to Michigan's most injured people and shift millions of dollars of costs onto taxpayers.
Their petition language threatens to impose the same failed policy of government mandated price controls that insurance companies have tried to include in no-fault legislation over the past several years. It was a terrible piece of legislation then and it continues to be a bad policy today. Insurance companies know full-well that hospitals are required by law to charge everyone the same prices. They can accept lower than the charged price because insurance providers are free to negotiate different reimbursement rates based on their purchasing power, volume and other factors. This petition seeks to interfere in those free market negotiations between health care providers and insurance companies, and would cost hospitals across the state tens of millions of dollars every year.
If insurance companies truly want to force a negotiation on auto no-fault they should start by opening up the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association so that we can truly understand the MCCA's financial standing and the economic and actuarial assumptions that are used to set its rates."
