Flint, MI—Have you received your $400 auto-insurance refund check? According to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office: you should have.
The deadline for auto-insurers to issue refunds to Michigan’s eligible residents was Monday, May 9, 2022.
This means roughly 70,000 checks should have been issued to Flintstones since the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCCA), a private non-profit responsible for reimbursing no-fault insurance companies for certain Personal Injury Protection claims, confirmed it would be sending refunds in December 2021.
“Thanks to the bipartisan auto-insurance reform I signed in 2019, we have delivered $400 auto refund checks per vehicle totaling $3 billion to Michigan drivers,” Whitmer said in a May 9, 2022 press release. “Our efforts put money back in the pockets of Michigan drivers this year and have also delivered more than $1 billion in statewide premium savings since the law took effect.”
The refunds are in response to a letter Whitmer sent to the MCCA in November 2021 asking that the organization use its projected $5 billion surplus to refund the state’s auto-insurance policyholders. Eligibility includes people who had a car, motorcycle, or RV that was insured to drive legally on Michigan roads as of 11:59 p.m. on October 31, 2021.
The letter was received with a mixed response from insurers at the time said Jeremy MacDonald, co-owner of Mid-Michigan Agency and board member for the Professional Insurance Agents of Michigan.
“The problem is you don’t know how old somebody is going to be when they’re injured or how badly they’ll be injured,” MacDonald said of the MCCA’s financial projections. “So anything they claim to be a surplus is just a guess.”
Ultimately though, according to the governor’s press release, the MCCA ended up transferring $3 billion to the Michigan auto-insurers responsible for issuing refunds and retained $2 billion of the surplus to ensure continuity of care for accident survivors.
Refunds should have been issued to eligible drivers by the company that insured your vehicle as of October 2021, which may or may not be the company that currently insures your vehicle.
If you believe you were eligible and have not yet received your check, the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services asked that you reach out to your auto insurer directly.
“If you are eligible for a refund but have not yet received it, you should contact the auto insurer that covered your vehicle on October 31, 2021, to ensure that your refund has been issued,” said Anita Fox, Director of the MDIFS.
Fox added that if you and your insurer “cannot reach a resolution” or “if you were offered a refund in a form other than a paper check or direct deposit” you should reach out to MDIFS for assistance at 833-ASK-DIFS or email autoinsurance@michigan.gov.
More information about the auto-insurance refunds, and frequently asked questions about them, can be found at Michigan.gov/MCCArefund.
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