The House lawmakers recently made the announcement in a gathering outside the state Capitol.
A bipartisan group of Michigan House lawmakers assembled outside the state Capital to announce a new auto insurance bill package. If passed to become law, it is meant to address the state’s current legal gaps.
According to critics, the no-fault law from two years ago makes it possible for insurers to make smaller payouts.
The 2019 no-fault law’s critics say that it makes it possible for insurers to pay less to their policyholders and that home care accident survivors require the larger payments. The new auto insurance bill package’s sponsor State Representative Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) is meant to fill in some of the gaps that make it possible for that to happen.
According to Rogers, some interpretations of the existing law make it possible for insurers not to have to pay for certain specific needs such as ramps.
“We need to continue to keep focused on assuring that patients get the care that they need. We’re seeing businesses going belly up because some of these new pieces of legislation that have been passed and then their interpretations,” said Rogers.
Survivor groups have been calling for changes such as this auto insurance bill for months.
The groups have been seeking the types of changes that would fill in the gaps left behind by the law from 2019. As of yet, none of the bills brought forward have made it out of committee. Many of those bills had been sponsored by State Representative Doug Wozniak (R-Shelby Township). He described them as bills to repair singular items. He also pointed at the effort to please stakeholders as the reason that progress has been held back.
“If we have patients, we know that we’re going to help them. The care givers? We’re trying to help them. So what’s that leave? Attorneys and insurance companies. Now can you think of a worse scenario or parties you have to deal with in developing some type of idea of what you’re going to do going forward?” said Wozniak when discussing the need for the auto insurance bill, while underscoring that he remains optimistic about this package.
