A number of people who’ve been severely injured in auto accidents were at the state Capitol Thursday.
As The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Jake Neher reports, they were urging lawmakers to reject a plan to overhaul the state’s no-fault auto insurance system.
Erica Coulston of Bloomfield Hills was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident in 2001. She and others with severe auto-related injuries can receive unlimited lifetime medical benefits under Michigan’s auto no-fault system.
They’re opposed to legislation that would cap those benefits at a million dollars for future injuries.
Coulston says even though the bill won’t take away her unlimited benefits, it still scares her.
“Not only for myself, being grandfathered in, supposedly, but also for the future injured – because I know how far a million dollars will go, and it’s not as far as you would think,” she says.
Supporters of the bill say Michigan has some of the highest auto insurance rates in the country. They say this would lower rates and allow more people to be covered.