‘Why is there no guaranteed savings for auto insurance consumers?’ tops the list
Much more needs to be known about the Senate Bill 248, the No Fault plan that was rammed quickly through the Senate last week.
Ostensibly, that’s the purpose of the hearings that are scheduled before the Michigan House of Representatives’ Insurance Committee for Tuesday, April 21 and Thursday, April 23.
The three most notable aspects of SB 248, which was passed by the Senate by a 21-17 vote on April 16, 2015, are:
- No guarantee of definite, quantifiable, meaningful and long-terms savings for consumers.
- Implementation of new, unprecedented and permanent restrictions on in-home attendant care.
- Imposition of price controls on what doctors and hospitals can charge for treating Michigan car crash victims.
To learn more about SB 248, please check out Michigan Auto Law’s blog post, “MI Senate harms consumers with No Fault ‘reform’ SB 248.”
But for lawmakers to make meaningful decisions, there’s a lot more that needs to be known about SB 248. I’ve created the following list of my own top 10 No Fault questions that lawmakers need to know about No Fault “reform,” as encapsulated in Senate Bill 248:
- Why is there no guarantee of definite, quantifiable, meaningful and long-term savings for auto insurance consumers in SB 248?
- How much will Michigan auto insurance companies save from the restrictions on attendant care?
- How much will Michigan auto insurance companies save from the price controls on doctors and hospitals?
- How much of the savings from the attendant care restriction and/or the price controls will be passed along to auto insurance consumers? When? For how long will the consumers’ savings last?
- How much are the profits (factoring in the reimbursements that auto insurers receive from the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association) for Michigan’s auto insurance industry, in general?
- How much are the profits on No Fault (factoring in the reimbursements that auto insurers receive from the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association) for Michigan’s auto insurance industry?
- How much are the profits on liability for Michigan’s auto insurance industry?
- How much are the profits on collision for Michigan’s auto insurance industry?
- How much more does Michigan’s auto insurance industry collect in auto insurance premiums than it pays out in claims? (In 2011, it was $2 billion. In 2013, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company took in more than $500 million more in revenue on its property and casualty line (which is, presumably, all auto) than it paid out in claims)
- Will the No Fault changes in SB 248 apply prospectively only or retroactively to open and existing claims?
Related information:
