The recent Detroit News article “Michigan Rolling Towards No-Fault Reform” (published Aug. 2) cannot be left unanswered. The article was published in the Think section of the Detroit News and written to look like a real news article, yet it really only presented one side of Michigan’s auto no-fault story. The author uses misleading data provided by a single source and fails to consider the impact of what the potentialcuts to no-fault benefits will have on health care providers and state taxpayers. Above all, the article was insulting to Michigan families that have suffered through a severe auto accident and cannot go unanswered.
The author starts off by insinuating that Jim Howell is somehow taking advantage of Michigan’s auto insurance system because he and his wife have given up their careers to care for their catastrophically injured son. Jim is a former state representative and a board member of the Brain Injury Association of Michigan. His son Sam, like most catastrophic auto accident survivors, requires 24-hour care. Sam’s needs and the costs associated with them do not change if the care is provided by his parents or an outside company. To accuse the Howell’s or any other family of trying to get rich off their seriously injured loved one is outrageous.
Next, the article insinuates that the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association is broken because it projects $80 billion costs while only having $13 billion on hand. That’s like saying I’m broke because I owe $80,000 on my house but only have $13,000 in my bank account.
Statements like this are exactly why the Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault and the Brain Injury Association of Michigan are suing the MCCA to open their finances to the publicand our legislators. This entity collects government-mandated fees from Michigan drivers and is going to lawmakers with misleading data, yet refuses to open its books to the public. Whatever changes lawmakers want to make to Michigan’s auto insurance system should start with increased transparency.
Finally, the article uses several pieces of data provided by the insurance industry on the costs of treating patients under Michigan’s no-fault system and quotes a paid PR spokesman as saying that the system has “virtually no cost controls.” This is completely untrue.
Insurance companies only have to pay for treatments that are deemed “reasonable and necessary” and often require second or third opinions before they will agree to pay for a treatment. Plus, insurers and health care providers are already free to negotiate rates between themselves.
Estimates show that if government mandated price controls, like the Workers Compensation fee schedule proposed in HB 4936, were imposed on auto accident victims then Southeast Michigan’s largest hospitals would lose a combined $100 million in revenueper year. This includes a $26 million loss for Beaumont Health System, a $24 million loss for Detroit Medical Center, an $18.3 million loss for Oakwood Healthcare, $12.7 million for St. Joseph Mercy, $9.5 million for Henry Ford, $9.3 million for St. John Providence, and $3.7 million for Mount Clemens Regional.
Research alsohasshown that the personal injury protection caps proposed by the insurance industry would ultimately cause survivors of the most severe auto accidents to pay out of pocket once they reach their cap. Charity and health insurance would pick up some costs up to a point, but eventually tens of millions of dollars will be shifted onto taxpayers through the state Medicaid system.
I hope this provides some more balanced information than was previously included in the Aug. 2 article. If we are going to debate the merits of changing Michigan’s no-fault system, all the facts deserve to be on the table.
Mike Dabbs is president of the Brain Injury Association of Michigan and a CPAN board member.
