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Page 4 — Thursday, February 3, 2022 — The Hastings Banner

Have you met?

Do you remember?

Did you see?

No-fault reform

eliminates the care

Much vaunted efforts by our governor

and state legislators to change Michi-

gan’s no-fault auto insurance laws, which

they ballyhooed as historic reform, are

nothing more than a thinly veiled politi-

cal pitch for votes.

This is, after all, an election year.

And everyone who had vehicles

insured in Michigan as of Oct. 31, 2021,

are being told that, later this year, they’ll

get $400 per insured vehicle, thanks the

members of our state Legislature, who

rammed through a reform bill without

even reading it.

Before last summer, the state’s no-fault

auto insurance law allowed people who

had suffered serious injuries in vehicle

accidents to receive 100-percent reim-

bursement for their medical costs. Mich-

igan had some of the highest auto insur-

ance rates in the nation. But that changed

last July, when reforms took effect to

lower car insurance rates for most people.

The legislation also cut deeply into the

profit margins for caregiving companies.

The state slashed reimbursement rates by

45 percent, dialing it back to what care-

givers had received about 30 years ago.

How many businesses can survive

today on what they were making 30

years ago? The simple answer to that

question is: They can’t.

So the people who needed care for

catastrophic injuries have lost that care

• and those who provided that care can’t
  afford to operate, so many of those busi-
  nesses no longer exist.
  It’s bad news if you were one of the
  catastrophically injured people who was
  promised this level of care for the
  remainder of your life. None of those
  cases was grandfathered in under the
  new reforms. Instead, like herding live-
  stock, victims were moved to facilities
  where they live in groups and receive a
  lower level of care.
  It’s true that, to allow for any unfore-
  seen needs and adjustments, state legisla-
  tors had set aside $25 million to help
  those who had been receiving care
  through the system before the reforms
  had passed. Some industry experts
  appropriately called it a Band-Aid – and
  it solved nothing. It involves a lengthy
  application process and those funds are
  capped at $500,000 per calendar year for
  each provider, which cannot sustain the
  costs of living for people who require
  24/7 care.
  What drove up the cost of no-fault
  insurance in Michigan over the years?
  The biggest program was the Legisla-
  ture’s creation in 1978 of the Michigan
  Catastrophic Claims Association, a non-
  profit, unincorporated entity formed to
  ensure that permanently-disabled victims
  of crashes and their families would be
  financially supported for the rest of the
  victims’ lives.
  But here’s where the wheels came off
  the wagon: The state didn’t provide over-
  sight of the MCCA in an effort to control
  costs, rather than monitoring the amount
  that drivers were being charged for auto
  insurance.
  Prior to reform, the law also limited
  the ability of auto insurers to negotiate
  prices from health care providers. Plus,
  legislators failed to deal with some of the
  real issues that drove up the costs – such
  as drivers with bad driving records and
  out-of-control medical costs and rates
  determined based on where drivers live.
  That neglect made it nearly impossible
  for a number of state residents to even
  afford auto insurance.
  Michigan drivers have always been
  required by law to have a no-fault policy
  that includes a Personal Injury Protection
  benefit. Drivers had no choice on the
  level of that benefit – it was high due to
  the provision of unlimited coverage for
  catastrophically-injured drivers.

Now, the law allows drivers to choose

their level of PIP protection: no coverage

and maximum limits of $50,000, if also

enrolled in Medicaid, $250,000, and

$500,000. Unlimited coverage is still

available at the higher premiums.

But, for those who choose to opt out of

any PIP coverage or who choose a lower

PIP, major problems will result if tragedy

strikes and they are injured. Allowing

drivers to opt out of any coverage is dan-

gerous because it threatens the financial

stability of the victims and their families

• unless they choose unlimited coverage.
  And here’s the ultimate irony in all of
  this: Choose unlimited coverage now
  and who will provide the care?
  The businesses that once existed in
  Michigan to provide the care aren’t there.
  It’s clear that, in implementing these
  reforms, our lawmakers capitulated to
  the insurance companies, who played
  them like chumps. A May 2019 report by
  Michigan Campaign Finance Report
  analyzed, over a five-year period, dona-
  tions made from auto insurance interest
  groups to Michigan lawmakers.
  It found that the Michigan Legisla-
  ture had received about $2.71 million
  from political action committees or
  organizations in favor of the auto insur-
  ance reform, with multiple members,
  such as state Reps. Annette Glenn,
  R-Midland, and Lee Chatfield, R-Le-
  vering, and state Sens. Jon Bumstead,
  R-Newaygo, and Tom Barrett, R-Char-
  lotte, receiving more than $100,000.
  State Sen. Lana Theis, R-Brighton, who
  chairs the Insurance and Banking Com-
  mittee that oversees any changes to the
  current no-fault legislation, received
  nearly $80,000.
  So these reforms looked like a slam-
  dunk for the governor and her cronies.
  Other than those catastrophically
  injured and their families, everybody
  else is happy: Drivers have lower premi-
  ums to pay. Insurance companies are
  paying out less in benefits and settle-
  ments. And legislators get the votes they
  seek.
  Just don’t look too deeply.
  A few lawmakers are beginning to
  realize what they’ve done and they’re
  concerned.
  State Rep. Phil Green, a Republican
  from Millington, recently introduced
  new legislation that would make further
  changes to the reforms as far as pay
  structures and family caretakers.
  That proposed bill is currently in the
  House Insurance Committee.
  State Rep. Julie Calley, a Republican
  from Portland, said the reforms have
  resulted in unintended consequences and
  is asking for a full report on the impact of
  the reforms before those $400 checks are
  sent out.
  What is clear to us is that legislators
  didn’t fix the system, they just reduced
  the protection and benefits by putting
  more of the risk right back on the drivers
  and their families.
  Under the reforms, yes, people can
  now choose.
  But what’s the choice? There’s no
  care.
  It’s nothing but smoke and mirrors.

The Hastings Banner

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That’s snow way to travel –

better keep off the road

Area residents are braced for more snow today

as a winter storm warning remains in effect. This

is part of a major cross-country storm system

that’s unleashing heavy snow, ice and even some

severe thunderstorms on different parts of the

Midwest. In Michigan, total snow accumulations

could add up to as much as 11 inches, when all

is said and done, in parts of south central and

southwestern Michigan. Hazardous travel condi-

tions were expected as temperatures drop and

the rain that had been falling Tuesday transi-

tioned into snow Wednesday. Forecasts indicate

that continuing rounds of snowfall will bury parts

of the Midwest into Friday. OK, that’s enough

about the weather. Scrabble anyone?

Real diehards

Undated Banner clipping, but

definitely winter; possibly late

1970s or early 1980s

It took real diehards to go ice

fishing on a recent weekend.

The rains came and melted

much of the snow, made slush

along the shoreline and poured

several inches of water on the

surface of the ice. However,

quite a few participated in their

favorite sport, including Mr. and

Mrs. R.J. Bates who live at

Leach Lake and enjoy fishing

there. Mrs. Bates had a nice

catch of perch (bottom right)

along with a few dandy bluegills.

Two days after Tracy Baker graduated

from Delton Kellogg High School, she

moved to California.

Her friend Beth Hamilton from Delton

had been visiting her father, who lived

close to Los Angeles, and she invited Baker

to tag along.

It sounded like a short, warm trip – a

chance to take time off before Baker went

to college and became a teacher. She could

see parts of the country she had never seen.

The daughter of a truck and bus driver,

Baker, whose maiden name was Leinaar,

grew up on a 40-acre pig farm. When she

wasn’t helping care for pigs, she was work-

ing in the cornfields or canning beans,

potatoes, tomatoes or cucumbers.

She didn’t know anything other than

farm life. She had never even left the state,

except to go to the Cedar Point amusement

park in Ohio.

Then, after graduating from high school

in 1982, she went to California and that

short vacation stretched from being a few

weeks to 10 years. She liked the 75-degree

weather and the beaches just minutes away.

She also liked experiencing a different kind

of fast-paced lifestyle.

Five weeks into her stay, she turned 18,

had a resume printed, bought a bike and

pedaled around the Los Angeles area sub-

mitting her application everywhere she

could.

Then a place called her back. It was Mat-

tel, the toy company that produced some of

the most iconic toys around the world. They

offered Baker a job in research and devel-

opment, and she took it.

Over the next 10 years, she built a life for

herself near Redondo Beach, just outside of

Los Angeles. She worked long hours, often

8 a.m. to 8 p.m. She rarely had energy for

anything outside of work and never did

fulfill her goal of returning to school or

becoming a teacher.

But that was OK. She designed toys for a

living.

“You’re living the life. You’re in the mid-

dle of toys. Who wouldn’t like that?” she

said. “So, I didn’t really have any extracur-

ricular activities. I just to work and I came

home.”

She held a number of roles in the compa-

ny. At one point, she flipped through maga-

zines and picked out Barbie’s fashion. She

would later serve on a “Shark Tank”-type

board for the company, where people would

pitch their toy ideas. There, she met celeb-

rities like Gene Simmons and Michael

Jackson.

In 1992, Baker decided to move. She had

two kids, Paul and Brian, who were 1?

years and 6 months old at the time. And she

didn’t want them to grow up in the whirl-

wind of Los Angeles.

“It’s fun, but they grow way too fast,”

she said. “They see way too much. So, we

came back here. Slow it down, let them

grow up and be kids.”

She returned to West Michigan, bought a

rental home in Cloverdale and almost

instantly missed the beaches, the weather

and the vibe of California.

“It was slow,” she remembered about

returning to Barry County. “It was like,

‘What I do now?’ ”

It took a couple of years to adjust, she

said.

She worked various jobs, including

Bradford White Corp. in Middleville, where

she met her husband of 25 years, Tim. A

childhood friend eventually encouraged her

to try selling real estate. Now, 22 years

later, she’s the owner and a broker with

At-Home real estate in Hastings.

“There are no two days alike,” she said

of the profession.

Since returning to Barry County, she has

found herself slowly getting integrated into

the community. It started with Rutland

Charter Township, where she was asked

serve on the joint planning commission and

zoning boards. She agreed, and the list

expanded after she moved to the city of

Hastings in 2015. Now, she is part of the

downtown business team, the Downtown

Development Authority board and the zon-

ing board of appeals. She also has coordi-

nated the Jingle & Mingle December cele-

bration.

Sometimes she still misses California,

though. Sitting in her drafty office on State

Street, she said she wasn’t built for the cold.

She’s bundled up in multiple layers with a

heater aimed at her feet and a radiator rus-

tling a few feet away

She misses the toy industry, too.

“I love that,” she said. “I’d go back there

in a heartbeat.”

But moving away also gave her a new

respect for Barry County.

“You didn’t realize what you had until

you left,” Baker said. “And then you came

back and you go, ‘This is pretty good. This

is a good life.’ ”

For her active role in the community,

Tracy Baker is this week’s Bright Light:

First job: Mattel Toys.

Person I am glad to have met: Tim

Baker.

Favorite season and why: Summer. It’s

hot.

Favorite vacation destination: South-

ern Caribbean.

Something most people don’t know

about me: I have a soft side for animals.

I worked for 10 years with the Kalama-

zoo Nature Center.

Favorite board game: Monopoly.

What the world needs now is: Love.

When I was kid, I wanted to be: A

teacher.

Each week, the Banner profiles a person

who makes the community shine. Do you

know someone who should be featured

because of volunteer work, fun-loving per-

sonality, for the stories he or she has to tell,

or for any other reason? Send information

to Newsroom, Hastings Banner, 1351 N.

M-43 Highway, Hastings, MI 49058; or

email [email protected].

Tracy Baker

Fred Jacobs, CEO

J-Ad Graphics, Inc.