Letter to the editor: Who benefits from the “reforms” to auto insurance?

September 1, 2022

To the Editor:

I don’t have a dog in this fight, other than I pay auto insurance in this state.

But, Kudos to the Michigan court of appeals judges, Douglas Shapiro and Sima Patel. Their 2-1 ruling on the 2019 Michigan no-fault insurance reform law is a just decision. I hope the same decision is eventually made by our Michigan Supreme Court.

Our legislators, Governor, and the insurance alliance of Michigan should be ashamed of themselves that this reform happened in the first place.

Under the guise of doing something for Michigan drivers, to lower our insurance rates, they took the easy way out. Instead of our representatives and the “alliance” actually reducing costs to lower rates, they found what they thought would be the easiest target, with low numbers people to mount much of a fight. And with a large sum of money in the Michigan catastrophic claims fund, they could send every insured car owner a check. And shout through the press what a wonderful thing they did for those over-paying insured drivers. Pictures online and on tv news abound in the days after, of our Governor and legislative representatives smiling and patting each other on the backs, for their tiresome and arduous job. But they did it for voters, errr I mean, over paying drivers.

Meanwhile, the caretakers and the catastrophically injured who were benefiting from some relief that the fund gave them, have their funding pulled out from under them. The fund that they also paid into, along with the rest of us. And the fund that any one of us would have to fall back on if we spun the roulette wheel of driving in Michigan, and had our number tragically come up.

Curious as to why we have some of the highest auto insurance rates in the country, and we also have one of the few full time legislative bodies in the country. With some of the best benefits you could imagine. Like heath care with no copay or deductible. All come with the job. Who pays them, anyway? We are some very generous employers.

I’m not accusing them of improprieties. I am accusing them of swing at the low hanging fruit. And the insurance lobbyists holding the branch down.

I don’t like the cost of insurance in this state either. I enjoyed getting a check from my insurance company of $400 per car. But when the savings come from a fund to help injured people, it’s sickening. This is the best solution our reps could come up with? Please.

The ruling of the appeals court will inevitably end up in our state Supreme Court. I hope they will have the same common sense as the appeals court judges. Then our legislators can go back to work for us on this. And come up with a better solution. Without a lobbyist holding a branch for them. Hopefully.

Keith Bennett, Bridgewater Township
Citizen of the greatest country in the world. (Only if we keep watch of it.)

Views expressed in any Letter to the Editor are always exclusively those of the author. Do you have something you want Manchester to know? Send your Letter to the Editor to themanchestermirror@gmail.com.

For as little as $1 a month, you can keep Manchester-focused news coverage alive.

by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.