Well, this may be a surprise to everyone.  Governor Whitmer has just requested that the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCCA) send all of us who pay auto insurance a refund check.

Before you get too excited about Whitmer’s call for a refund and give her any credit there is more to the story. Michigan’s “insurance law requires the MCCA, beginning in September 2022 and every three years thereafter, to issue refunds when assets exceed 120% of liabilities”.

The MCCA is currently sitting on $27 billion dollars worth of our cash.  Funds they have accumulated over the years through surcharges on our auto insurance.  The fund is controlled by a nonprofit corporation whose executive director is Kevin Clinton and the board is controlled by the insurance industry.

The Lansing State Journal reported about a letter Whitmer submitted to Mr. Clinton that stated the MCCA has a surplus of approximately $5 billion dollars as of June 30, 2021.  It is interesting to note that surplus grew from $2.4 Illinois as of just a year ago.  How is that fund accumulating such huge surpluses in such a short amount of time?

In a news release Whitmer said:

“The over $5 billion surplus accumulated by the MCCA belongs to Michiganders and should be put in people's pockets immediately with a refund check”

How much of the surplus will they give back who knows?

If they decide to give back the entire $5 billion surplus, each Michigan-insured vehicle would receive an average check of approximately $676 per vehicle.  Have some fun trying to determine how much of a refund you may get. There are approximately 7.4 million insured vehicles in Michigan.

Who decides how much Michiganders get back?  That would be the people who control the MCCA fund. Executive Director, Kevin Clinton yesterday said that it is “true that the fund's current assets exceed its expected liabilities by $5 billion, but he said giving up the entire surplus "may be a difficult thing to do””.

Mr. Clinton then stated that if they were to follow 120% of liabilities law there would only be a $743 million refund or a refund check of approximately $100 per insured vehicle.

Governor Whitmer knows that the law states 120% of surplus so why did she ask for all $5 billion to be given back to the people?  Because it is all political and she is trying to buy people's votes with someone else's money.

More to come on this story.

 

More From WKMI