Michigan motorcyclists disenchanted with insurance reform
Photo by John Rothwell
Gerry Spomer, from Rapid River, has been riding motorcycles for around 60 years. Now, he said he hears riders are keeping their bikes in the garage. He said distracted car drivers have been increasingly scary for riders, but since the passage of insurance reform in 2019, motorcyclists have another reason to be apprehensive.
“A motorcyclist is better of if they’re hit by someone who is totally uninsured,” Spomer said.
That’s because, under the new law, a motorcyclist is first covered by the insurance held by a motor vehicle they get in an accident with, not their own insurance. And that personal injury insurance could now be capped as low as $50,000.
A motorcyclist would only get to use their own insurance coverage if they get in an accident with an uninsured motor vehicle, or one not involving another vehicle.
“Our medical benefits are capped by whatever the other driver has purchased for themselves,” Spomer said. “We’re buying benefits that we can’t use.”
Motorcycle riders are alone in this distinction. He said this has Michigan riders apprehensive and “kind of ticked off.”
“Motorcyclists up here, a lot of them are unaware of this,” Spomer said. “I’m sure the anger is going to build.”
Sen. Ed McBroom
The insurance reform was passed as Senate Bill 1 of 2019. Among its nine sponsors was Senator Ed McBroom. When it was introduced, the bill consisted of four pages. After emerging from the Senate Committee on Insurance and Banking about four months later, it grew to 80 pages. McBroom, who was not on the committee, said negotiations with other politicians, hospitals, and even the governor, meant the bill expanded rapidly.
“Many of us would have preferred a very simple, you know, take a hammer to the whole system and give people some choices,” McBroom said. “Maybe even take away the mandatory nature of the program.”
The bill was passed on the same day that it returned to the full Senate, with full Republican support, and most Democrats opposed it.
McBroom said the rush was likely in part due to the legislative session calendar (they were off the following week), and a desire to pass the bill while they had all the votes necessary.
“I wasn’t really privy to a lot of that,” McBroom said. “I was an early supporter, and I monitored the progress and didn’t see the bill progress to a point where I couldn’t support it anymore, and so I voted for it.”
In the House of Representatives, 12 amendments were proposed, and all but two failed. The amendments that failed would have limited the practice of red-lining or use of credit score as an insurance rating factor, expanded price reductions to more coverage than just personal injury, and more. You can read the proposed amendments in the official Senate and House Journals linked here, or the summaries written on MichiganVotes.org.
It was then passed, 94-15, with broad support from both parties.
Representative Kyra Bolden(D-Southfield) was one of the 15 dissenting votes and was also on the House committee that handled the bill.
Rep. Kyra Bolden offering a substitute to change some things in the auto insurance reform bill, including the prioritization of personal injury coverage for motorcycles, on May 9, 2019. (official photo)
Bolden is a licensed attorney, and before she was elected, she worked in the Third Circuit Court in Wayne County. No-fault insurance cases were 80% of the docket, she said.
“I got my hands quite dirty with all of the major issues that occurred within the law as it existed before SB1,” Bolden said.
She said the committee hearings focused on listening to attorneys and insurance companies, but not constituents. The committee was chaired by Rep. Jason Wentworth(R-District 97), who succeeded Rep. Lee Chatfield(R-District 107) as Speaker of the House.
“When it got to the floor, we didn’t get the language, both times, until a couple of hours before we were supposed to vote,” Bolden said. “I think it just deserved a little bit more --in my opinion-- attention to detail.”
She said the abbreviated timeline alone might have been enough for her to vote against the bill. The Speaker of the House, at the time former Rep. Chatfield, controls when votes happen, and on what bills.
When SB1 returned to the Senate for the House amendments to be confirmed, only four Senate Democrats opposed the bill. They were Senators Winnie Brinks(D-District 29), Jeff Irwin(D-District 18), Mallory McMorrow(D-District 13), and Jeremy Moss(D-District 11).
During the passage of the bill, many legislators made statements acknowledging that the bill was imperfect and that insurance reform would need more work. They urged votes in favor of the bill none-the-less because it would deliver much-desired rate relief.
Shortly after SB1 was passed, a multitude of other legislation to amend it was proposed, including bills in both the House and Senate to reverse the order of priority for motorcyclists’ personal injury coverage, so that their own choice of insurance would come into play first. Spomer said they were told the bills would come to a vote during the lame-duck session. It didn’t happen. None of the bills came to a vote.
“I feel betrayed by Senator McBroom, to be honest with you,” Spomer said.
Spomer campaigned for McBroom and other Republicans in 2018 and was trying to work with them on insurance reform concerns, too.
“Leadership kept telling us that they were going to work with us, and ABATE was going to be very instrumental,” Spomer said. “We found out that wasn’t the case.”
Vince Consiglio, President of ABATE (American Bikers Aiming Toward Education) of Michigan, thinks the bill was rushed and the politicians that voted for it didn’t really know the contents and the consequences.
Not only are a motorcyclist’s personal injury caps partially out of their control, but those same caps may also make them ineligible for the Michigan Catastrophic Coverage Fund, even though they’re required to pay into it. ABATE hasn’t been able to get a clear answer from anyone about when they’re eligible.
“There’s no logic to how it’s set up, and SB1 didn’t deal with any of that,” Consiglio said.
He doesn’t think there’s the political impetus to get the law changed again now. He said the lack of choice for motorcyclists was an intentional move to benefit insurance companies.
“Without a doubt, they basically wrote SB1,” Consiglio said.
Sen. Greg Markkanen on the House floor, May 9, 2019. (official photo)
Rep. Greg Markkanen doesn’t think the oversight was intentional.
“I just think, you know, there was just so much going on that things, I don’t want to say fall through the cracks, but it for some reason, just didn’t get covered,” Markkanen said.
ABATE has been looking for a new senator to sponsor the bill that would have fixed the prioritization issue for motorcyclists ever since the last bill expired. The previous sponsor, Sen. Peter Lucido, has left the Senate.
“There’s no movement by any senator to make a change,” Consiglio said. “Nobody likes to admit they’re wrong, and certainly politicians never do.”
McBroom said he thought safeguards around long-term rehabilitative care in the bill could have been improved, and that fee schedule adoption by hospitals could have been accelerated, too. He also would have liked people to have the choice to opt-out of insurance.
“But, you know, in the end, the critical aspects, I felt were doing whatever we could to reduce the cost to drivers,” McBroom said.
He said getting the savings promised hasn’t been simple, although they have been “very real”.
“It has been frustrating,” McBroom said. “I have been laboring, even, the last two months to get it straightened out with my carrier.”
He also said that Michigan still has the best coverage, by far, and that more savings are possible for Michigan ratepayers.
Bolden said her constituents still call her and say nothing has changed in the affordability of their auto insurance.
“I obviously can’t speak for, you know, other communities, overall rate reduction for the entire state of Michigan, but it has not been substantial in my community,” Bolden said.
She said she’s been having conversations with people, including the insurance companies, to get support for a new bill to fix some problems with SB1 of 2019.
“But the preference right now is to have the law go into full effect and see if and when there are problems,” Bolden said. “I think we need to fix things before they become issues because we can see that it’s going to be an issue.”
She said she hoped to introduce another bill to fix SB1 of 2019 before the end of spring. McBroom said he’s open to conversations on the bill, but might not be the best sponsor since he’s not on the committee. Markkanen said he would support a bill “if it came across my desk”.
Consiglio isn’t very optimistic, though.
“[The] insurance lobby has way more money than we do,” he said. “Everything’s in their favor.”
Legislation in February
McBroom’s bills and resolutions-
(resolutions are non-binding)
Sandhill cranes grazing in a field. Photo courtesy of Mark Moschell/Creative Commons.
This week, Sen. Ed McBroom(R) introduced Senate Resolution 20, to encourage the Natural Resources Commission to add Eastern sandhill cranes to the game species list. The resolution has been referred to the Senate Natural Resources Committee, which McBroom chairs.
McBroom’s co-resolution with Sen. Jon Bumstead(R), Senate Resolution 15 urging the NRC to authorize--and the Department of Natural Resources to organize--wolf hunts, was returned from the Natural Resources committee favorably, and without amendment. On the Natural Resources Committee with McBroom are Senators Bumstead, Rick Outman(R), Wayne Schmidt(R) and Sean McCann(D).
Also referred to the Natural Resources committee is McBroom’s Senate Bill 178, which would allow for reimbursement from the Department of Treasury if drink distributors have redeemed more 10 cent bottle deposits than they charged. This is a bill reintroduced from an earlier legislative session.
He also reintroduced a bill from before, now Senate Bill 177, that would allow for the expungement of the first offense for operating while intoxicated, under certain conditions. It has been referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety.
Senate Bill 160, embedded below, would require that DNR officers would need a warrant in most cases to search or enter private property. McBroom introduced it this week and it has been referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety.
On Feb. 18, McBroom introduced Senate Resolution 16, which is in support of the mining industry. It’s been referred to the Senate Committee for Economic and Small Business Development.
A recent success for McBroom came in the unanimous passage of Senate Bill 119, which he introduced early in February. This week it passed the Senate and has now been sent to the House Committee on Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation. The bill, embedded below, would change the details of mine-inspector requirements, notably requiring one in any county with an abandoned mine.
McBroom has introduced several other bills this year, but none of them has received a vote yet.
Markkanen’s bills and resolutions
House Rep. Greg Markkanen this week introduced House Bill 4329 (included below), which would apply the same standards of legislative approval applied to the emergency health and safety orders in House Bill 4330 to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The two bill are tie barred together, and neither has received a vote.
A bill Markkanen proposed, with support from other Republicans and three Democrats, would remove the caps on distributed generation of renewable energy in the state. House Bill 4236 hasn’t left the House Energy Committee, chaired by Rep. Joe Bellino.
Significant Votes
The House of Representatives voted on House Joint Resolution A, which passed with a comfortable margin, 102-7. The bill decides whether a two-thirds majority should be required to pass lame duck legislation. Upper Peninsula Reps. Sara Cambensy and Greg Markkanen supported the bill, and Rep. Beau LaFave voted against it.
The bill is now in the Senate Committee on Government Operations.
Sen. McBroom alone opposed Senate Bill 0049, which modifies the details for brewery tasting rooms. There was no protest logged in the day’s Senate Journal to explain his vote. The bill received otherwise unanimous support and now moves on to the House.
Senate Bills 29 and 114 are the controversial appropriations bills. They each eventually passed the Senate, 20-15, strictly along party lines, but not before at least ten amendments were proposed and voted against on Senate Bill 114.
Democratic senators widely condemned the dispensing of only a portion of federal relief funds as a political move made to hurt Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration, but at the expense of the Michigan public, in the Senate Journal (below).
The bill now moves to the House.
Republican Senators also passed Senate Bill 46 without support from any Democrats. This bill exempts some broadband equipment from property tax.
The House Fiscal Agency concluded, in their analysis of SB 46, that
“As written, the bills would reduce state and local tax revenue by an unknown amount. Because it is not possible to know how much equipment would be classified as exempt under the bills, what the taxable values would be, and the appropriate local millage rates, the loss of property tax revenue to local units of government, the School Aid Fund via the state education tax, and the general fund cannot be estimated.”
Senator Ed McBroom
P.O. Box 30036
Lansing, MI 48909-7536
By Phone: (517) 373-7840
By Fax: (517) 373-3932
Representative Greg Markkanen
S-1489 House Office Building
P.O. Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909
Phone: (517) 373-0850
Email: GregMarkkanen@house.mi.gov
Representative Joe Bellino Jr
N-696 House Office Building
P.O. Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909
Phone: (517) 373-1530
Email: JosephBellino@house.mi.gov