To the editor: Don’t junk Mich. no-fault system

3/11/2018

Michigan state law should allow citizens to decide if they want the equivalent of no-fault insurance by making it an option to purchase.

The Blade’s Feb. 20 editorial, “Time to junk Mich. no-fault,” is right that Michigan’s auto insurance rates are unconscionably high, but eliminating their no-fault system will actually cost Michigan families and Michigan taxpayers more in the long run.

As a rehabilitation professional who lives in Ohio and practices in Michigan, I see the value of no-fault every day. That is because Michigan’s system provides the most comprehensive medical and rehabilitative care in the nation and there is no cost to those severely injured in a vehicle accident or their families. That is not the case here in Ohio, where the financial burden of physical, occupational, speech, and neuropsychological therapy — plus in-home medical services — is typically placed on families. As these costs can run to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, they quickly exhaust a family’s finances, force them into bankruptcy to qualify for Medicaid, and in turn impose those Medicaid costs on state taxpayers.

Eliminating no-fault in Michigan would also mean litigating every vehicle accident to determine fault, which clutters courts and can take years to resolve — enriching lawyers but depriving accident victims of the funds necessary to pay for their care.

There are legitimate ways Michigan can cut the cost of its auto insurance premiums, but “junking” it, as The Blade’s editorial suggests, is a shortsighted and counterproductive idea.

JOHN LEEMING
Chaney Drive

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