Caregivers protest in Lansing, demand re-do of no fault car insurance law
LANSING, MI(FOX 2) - They came by wheel chair and walker, and were accompanied by their caregivers.
Protesters marched on Lansing Wednesday to demand a re-do of recently enacted no fault car insurance laws that were signed by Gov. Whitmer earlier this year.
While the governor, top legislative brass and rank-and-file Democrats and Republicans were all smiles that day, at least one doctor is not smiling.
"I would say 'what you are doing is murderous, evil and egregious and manipulative of our health care,'" said Dr. Brian Weinstein, a psychiatrist. "I would say to the governor, how could you live with yourself?"
Protesters rally in Lansing, demand re-do of no fault car insurance law
Budget season in Lansing is almost up as lawmakers will vote in the last week of September to keep the government open and funded. But talks are already beginning to shift toward other issues. One is a familiar problem at the state's capitol: No fault auto insurance. Protesters congregated in Lansing to demand a re-do of Michigan's revised no-fault auto insurance policy that was amended earlier this year.
Weinstein deals with patients who have catastrophic injuries. He's not alone in his anger over how the insurance rewrite was authored. People upset with the rewrite say they wanted choices over the amount of coverage they could have. The legislature's rewrite doesn't offer them that option they say, and forces them to purchase expensive coverage they can't afford.
"You're going to have one crash after another where the medical providers and the family of the injured people, all find out there is not enough coverage to really cover the other person's needs and that's the reality that's coming to all the future crash victims that don't have the full coverage," said Stephen Sinas, a No Fault Lawyer.
Sinas warned that with medical costs already too high, the state could see more medical bankruptcies.
Another layer to the issue are the salaries of caregivers, which many fear could be cut dramatically. That would leave family members sharing a greater responsibility of caring for hurt loved ones.
"Their wages will be cut below minimum wage - our caregivers," said Bill Nevera, a resident from Pinckney. "Nurses will go down 45 percent of their salaries that they're going to lose."
Senate GOP leader Mike Shirkey promised to continue tweaking the no fault law before it goes into effect next year. As for the caregivers?
"I think they're going to have to re-engineer their jobs just like I had to re-engineer my business when the world changed for me," he said. "There's plenty of work to go around but they may have to re-engineer themselves."