A Humanitarian Crisis

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A Humanitarian Crisis

Some Jewish policy makers want to restore full care to victims of catastrophic auto accidents who are suffering under Michigan’s new auto insurance reforms.

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Abad auto accident can change everything in an instant. Metal meets metal, metal meets flesh, flesh meets concrete, and your anticipated future disappears. Before the accident, you had capabilities, competences, plans and hopes that become irrelevant to your new future. From now on, you might need help to get out of bed, get dressed, use the bathroom, eat, drink or even breathe.

And a bad auto accident could happen to anyone who gets in a car as driver or passenger, who rides a bicycle or even just crosses a street. It could happen to any of us.

If you got into one of those terrible accidents in Michigan under the old auto insurance law, though, your insurance would pay for the services you would need. Ever since Oct. 1, 1973, all drivers had to pay for unlimited personal injury protection coverage (PIP) as part of the old no-fault insurance law.

One teenager survived an accident that cost her control of her body from the shoulders down. Dr. Owen Perlman, her doctor, describes her life after the accident: With medical care, attendant care and a home modified to accommodate her disabilities, she completed high school, then college, and then earned her Ph.D. She got an academic job. She married and had children.

She had the terrible fortune to undergo a catastrophic accident and the good fortune to have this accident under the old no-fault law. In the words of State Sen. Jeremy Moss, “The old law enabled victims not just to live, but to have a life.”

Dr. Owen Perlman

But under this law Michigan had the highest auto insurance premiums in the United States. From the Sen. Jeremy Moss beginning, opponents have tried to repeal expensive provisions of the law, especially mandatory unlimited personal injury coverage. After decades of activity, they succeeded. A bipartisan bill offering the option of lower personal injury protection and cutting benefits even to those who opt for unlimited coverage, was signed into law by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on May 30, 2019.

THE NEW LAW

According to a statement of the Department of Insurance and Financial Services of the State of Michigan (DIFS), “Mandatory unlimited Personal Injury Protection (PIP) medical benefits proved too expensive for many Michigan families. Some drivers who could not afford costly unlimited coverage were driving uninsured.”

But that meant that if your catastrophic auto accident in Michigan happened after July 1, 2020, you no longer could count on unlimited medical benefits. The law somehow also cut benefits from survivors of catastrophic injuries who were already receiving care under the old law. Anita Fox, director of DIFS, explains that the new law “didn’t change what an accident victim is entitled to; an accident victim is still entitled to anything related to their medical care rehabilitation. But it changed the amount that their providers could be compensated by the insurance company for that care.”

Cutting compensation does mean that patients sometimes cannot get the care they need. This was not an unforeseeable consequence of the law. Robert Wittenberg, now treasurer of Oakland County, then a representative in the Michigan House (D), explained his vote against the law: “I absolutely foresaw the problem, and I was worried about the quality of care accident survivors would receive.”

A bipartisan group of legislators opposed cutting benefits to survivors who were already receiving care and opposed the sharp limitations to “unlimited” care for future victims.

Dr. Perlman’s patient was one of those who got reduced care under the new law. With reduced payments for daily care, and unable to pay for an attendant to get the patient dressed and safely to work, the patient lost her job and, consequently, her home. Survivors of catastrophic injuries now often wind up in nursing homes.

Robert Wittenberg WORKING TO MAKE A CHANGE

Because of cases like this one, Dr. Perlman founded the Michigan Interfaith Coalition: Advocating to Fix Michigan’s Humanitarian Crisis.

Kaci Messeder, policy analyst for Detroit Disability Power, estimates that “over 2,300 survivors who were already receiving care experienced drastic cuts to that care — many have been forced to leave their homes and seven have died.”

The legislators have spearheaded bills to patch various holes in the current law. Moss voted against the new law, and declares, “Not a day passes in which I do not work to oppose the new law, and to restore coverage to the catastrophically injured accident survivors.”

Sen. Doug Wozniak (R), voted for the 2019 law, but now observes that “legislators from both sides of the aisle have proposed about 10 serious bills to fix the problems with the new auto insurance law. It is not just one side of the aisle.”

How does the 2019 law limit “unlimited” care? It caps the number of hours that friends or family receive payments for a patient’s attendant care at 56 per week. The patient may need attendant care all day every day, 168 hours per week, but the insurance does not have to pay for the additional hours. Wozniak says, “limiting the care to 55 hours makes no sense.”

Rep. Phil Green (R) has offered HB 5698, which would increase the number of compensated hours per week to 110.

The 2019 law caps payments

Sen. Doug for professional attendant care Wozniak at 55% of what they charged on Jan. 1, 2019. Unsurprisingly, businesses that provide attendant care have closed, and their workers have left the field. Most providers of attendant care, in the best of times a poorly compensated line of work, apparently cannot survive a drastic pay cut. Primarily because of these limits on mandatory payments, the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association now shows a surplus. It holds more money than it expects to need to cover payments. The MCCA has therefore issued a refund of $400 per insured vehicle to insured drivers. Wittenberg observes,

Anita Fox, the director of the Department of Insurance and Financial Services of the State of Michigan, recommends that survivors of auto accidents and their families call “a special dedicated line for auto no-fault: 1-833 ASK DIFS, so that we can connect with any family that wants our help. We have a website. We have an online complaint form as well . . . Because we do agree that access to care is very important.”

DIFS can try to get the best services at current levels of coverage, but DIFS does not have the power to restore the earlier levels of unlimited coverage.