By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-1001220.mp3
LANSING, MI –
A coalition opposed to a proposed overhaul of Michigan's no-fault insurance law is headed to court. The group wants to know how much money no-fault claims cost ratepayers and the insurance industry. We have more from Michigan Public Radio's Rick Pluta.
The insurance industry says Michigan's no-fault system -- which offers unlimited lifetime medical benefits -- is not sustainable. Trial lawyers, doctors and hospitals, and victim advocates say otherwise.
Trial lawyer George Sinas says a state-created insurance group has data on injuries and payouts that could help settle the argument...
"...data that allows us to test the validity, the accuracy, the reliability of the prognostications and forecasts by the industry that this house of cards is going to fall," he says.
Sinas's group has filed a lawsuit in an effort to force the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association to release its numbers.
Insurance companies say that information is not subject to disclosure laws. The data is used to set an annual fee paid by every driver to cover catastrophic claims.