LANSING, Mich. — Efforts in Lansing to reform the no-fault auto insurance law are now dead for the term. It comes as $400 rebate checks continue to make their way into Michiganders' mailboxes.
House Speaker Jason Wentworth says he's spent the last year looking at proposals to fix the fix to the law made back in 2019 to bring down auto insurance payments. He says it's time to move on, but others aren't backing down.
"For Speaker Wentworth to say 'It's time to move on,' it's is a luxury that he has," Melissa Springsteen says.
It's a luxury she doesn't have as she's now paralyzed after surviving a crash when she was 15.
"I'm moving on for us would mean saying goodbye to our caregivers, our nurses, our therapists, our medical supplies, or medical equipment," Springsteen says.
For more than 20 years, the post-acute care she needed 24/7 was a guarantee. But now, her future hangs in the balance.
"If nothing gets done, I do expect to lose my caregivers, my therapist, my nurses," Springsteen says. "I couldn't continue to feel like a mom and a wife and a person. Because I would not be able to do the activities that I need to do for those roles."
Funding for home care needed by crash survivors with catastrophic injuries and health agencies was cut by 45 percent.
"That the statement of 'It's time to move on' is hurtful and painful," Tom Constand, President of the Brain Injury Association of Michigan, says.
He calls the house speaker's words like a gut punch to 18,000 Michigan survivors under the no-fault system.
"As of the end of October, more than 1,500 patients care had been affected or discharged, over 3,000 jobs were lost and 21 organizations and companies had closed their doors. After all of that, the Speaker of the House says 'Enough, we're not gonna solve this problem,' and walks away," Constand says.
To try and make up some of the difference in funds for crash survivors, the organization has started a new fund this week and has collected $2,000 so far.
"We did this in response to the people who said to us, 'I can't take this money, it's blood money,'" Constand says.
Both he and Springsteen say they aren't giving up the fight for reform.
"My hope is that the legislators that do support us, stand up and say, 'We do need to do something,'" she says.
The Brain Injury Association of Michigan is collecting for the Auto No Fault Survivor Fund through its donation page.
You can make a donation by heading to the donation page on the website and typing “ANF Survivor Fund” in the box that reads, “Please specify if your donation is for something specific.”
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