For decades, Michigan enjoyed the most comprehensive and generous automobile insurance for catastrophic injury in the country. It was a system called Auto No Fault. The mandatory insurance provided lifetime coverage for medical needs of any scale due to a car crash. The joke among attorneys, lawmakers, victim advocates, and insurance companies alike was, “If you get injured in a car accident, make it in Michigan.”
In 2019, the state of Michigan fundamentally changed that system. Under the guidance of insurance company lobbyists, state lawmakers instituted reforms they said were designed to lower the cost of automobile insurance. Michigan drivers, especially those in Detroit, were paying some of the highest premiums in the country.
While those savings have yet to be universally realized, the most tangible impact of the was the loss of Auto No Fault. Under the new laws, insurance companies no longer had to pay for unlimited medical care for accident victims, and it was retroactive. So, overnight, the medical benefits for the thousands of people already living with injuries from catastrophic car crashes were removed. People living with traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, loss of limbs and normal bodily function, no longer had their care covered by auto insurance companies.
While lawmakers now say they didn’t intend for the reforms to be retroactive, they have no plans to reverse course.
This has left car accident victims and their loved ones scrambling to keep their medical care, or to find new care in a system not designed for their injuries, or simply not being able to afford care and being moved to a nursing home. Some people have died.
