LANSING — Sen. Erika Geiss (D-Taylor), minority vice chair of the Senate Insurance and Banking Committee and the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has issued the following statement after the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCCA) announced a rate increase from $192 to $220, which sparked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to demand an audit:

“It’s a slap in the face to all Michigan drivers to have a nearly 15% increase in the rate we pay a year towards the MCCA; we already have the highest auto insurance rates in the country. The MCCA has claimed it is over $3 billion in debt, and this rate increase shows that their solution is to go to the hardworking people of our state to fill a hole created by their unsound financials. Raising this rate harms all drivers, and puts further burden on working families and the working poor who are already struggling to make ends meet, which includes needing enough money to pay for their already too high car insurance. Given that the MCCA is neither subject to the Open Meetings Act nor the Freedom of Information Act, I fully support and applaud Governor Whitmer’s request for an audit. All Michiganders deserve, at the very least, to know and see what the MCCA is doing with the money that they have already paid into the fund, especially before any further increases beyond what they already pay occurs.”

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