Commentary: No-fault bill in Michigan is just another wish list

By Gary Gosselin Dolan Media Newswires DETROIT, MI--The good thing about wish lists is that everyone has one. The bad thing about wish lists is that they rarely reflect reality. Take the insurance industry's wish list, for example. It's House Bill 4612, which would cap the unlimited benefits for catastrophic no-fault claims at $1 million, and make other drastic changes to Michigan's no-fault system. They want to make it everyone else's wish list, too, promising a $125 cut in insurance premiums. Thing is, they're tagging on two $25 taxes (or fees, if you prefer), and there is no guarantee that the $125 savings will continue past the first year. No guarantee. None. The bill would limit a patient's ability to dispute a claim; would cap the amount paid for home and car modifications; could further restrict access to products, services or accommodations; and would propose to limit caretaker time. And those are just the obvious highlights. Questions are still unanswered about what might happen to potentially billions of dollars left over and held by the caretakers of the fund, the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association, to pay the claimants. Did I mention that the MCCA is operated by the insurance industry? Did I also mention that the MCCA is fighting Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits that are trying to pry financial information from what is supposed to be a quasi-public entity funded by our insurance premiums? It seems a little disingenuous for the insurance industry and their backers (proponents of HB 4612) to want to gut our current system, citing unsustainable funding levels, when they fight tooth and nail to prevent that very information from being released. They also say they want to contain costs of participating in the system and ostensibly cite that as a big reason for the proposed changes. If they're truly serious, the industry would get behind the fraud provision of this bill, which would establish a fraud authority funded by insurance providers, and provide grant funding to agencies charged with combating fraud and establish a central repository for fraud data. They might also include language to assure proper billing by medical providers and introduce that as legislation that both sides of this issue could get behind. Then, maybe proponents of this no-fault legislation could go back to the drawing board and include all the parties in discussions to come to some sort of consensus for reform. Alas, what's that old saying, wish in one hand ... Even Detroit's lawmakers have their wish list. It's called the "Detroit Democratic Auto No-Fault Package," according to Mlive. It would "track fraud, waste auto insurance system and abuse in Michigan's auto insurance system, require insurance companies to justify rate increases, ban the consideration of credit history, education and occupation in determining premiums and make other changes in an effort to save drivers money." That's what I call a wish list. My most recent wish list includes wishes that the sponsor of the bill would call me back and that someone from Gov. Rick Snyder's office would talk to me about this issue. Published: Thu, Jun 6, 2013