Michigan’s New Auto Reform Law Will Take Effect July 2nd

Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law a long-awaited auto insurance reform bill that takes effect July 2, meaning that Detroiters potentially can make lower their insurance premiums.

“People in lower-income communities and households are going to try to save money.” — Chad Livengood, Crain’s Detroit

“For the first time since 1973, motorists will be able to choose the level of medical coverage on their auto insurance plan,” says Crain’s Detroit’s Chad Livengood. However, the exact capabilities of this new law to vastly reduce insurance rates depend on the specific details of your plan and if your insurance agent can help you work to get costs down.

Listen: Crain’s Chad Livengood on the implications of the changes to auto insurance in Michigan.

Guest

Chad Livengood is the Senior Editor of Crain’s Detroit Business, who has reported on the new change to auto insurance. Now that car owners can choose which rate they will pay, Livengood says that “what’s likely to happen is that people in lower-income communities and households are going to try to save money,” which may end up costing them in the long run if they get into an auto accident. 

Livengood says that even though using zip codes to set auto insurance rates is now illegal, it still won’t stop insurers from grouping zip codes together or using information from the census to create territories as a loophole. Livengood references Mayor Duggan’s desire for one auto insurance rate across the state that would reduce the inequities Detroiters face. 

Livengood also discusses the push to rename buildings named for Lewis Cass, one of Michigan’s most prominent early politicians whose problematic actions are now being reevaluated. On the newly announced Elliott-Larsen Building, “whether we’ll rename counties and cities and one of the best high schools in Detroit is probably up for debate, but things like the Cass Building seem like a first place to start here,” says Livengood.