Page 4 — Thursday, October 21, 2021 — The Hastings Banner
Have you met?
Do you remember?
Did you see?
Legislature’s failure puts
most vulnerable in jeopardy
Political Rule #1: Never accept blame
for any mistake, even if you caused the
problem in the first place.
Political Rule #2: Find a way to transfer
responsibility for the quandary to the peo-
ple who elected you – while at the same
time appearing to have done them a favor.
In their latest swindle, the artful dodg-
ers of our Michigan Legislature are cover-
ing their slapdash mismanagement of a
state agency tasked with caring for cata-
strophically-injured auto accident victims
by putting the responsibility for abandon-
ing that protection on every citizen in this
state. Then they have distracted us from
realizing what they’ve done by putting
money in our pockets through a big reduc-
tion in auto insurance rates.
It’s brazen, modern-day politics, but
what else can we expect from a band of
narcissistic legislators interested only in
their political futures?
In 2019, legislators reacted to the public
outcry over the state’s highest auto insur-
ance rates in the country by passing the
no-fault auto insurance reform law. The new
provisions that took effect this past July 1
brought a dramatic reduction in rates that
was made possible only through slashing by
45 percent the costs that insurance compa-
nies pay to medical providers of catastroph-
ic services to the most severely injured.
When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed
the no-fault reform bill in May 2019, fam-
ilies of those patients in need of round-the-
clock care for catastrophic injuries were
under the impression that all current cases
would be “grandfathered” into the system.
Now, two years later, they are tragically
finding out that is not the case.
Since 1978, Michigan drivers paid more
for auto insurance than any other state in
the nation – an estimated $1,200 per year.
Experts say the high cost of premiums was
due, primarily, to the state’s no-fault insur-
ance system that included providing acci-
dent victims unlimited coverage for medi-
cal bills, lost wages, and living expenses,
even in permanently catastrophic situations.
In an admirable plan to pay for that
coverage, legislators also in 1978 created
the Michigan Catastrophic Claims
Association, a non-profit, unincorporated
entity to ensure that permanently disabled
auto accident victims, and the families
who had depended on them, would be
financially supported for the rest of the
accident victim’s life.
The problem was that subsequent
Legislatures started veering out of control
like a hit-and-run driver, providing no
oversight of the MCCA and its financial
practices. When they created the MCCA
in 1978, state legislators guaranteed the
agency exemption from the Freedom of
Information Act. As the costs of cata-
strophic injury care began climbing, auto
insurance rates soared because the MCCA
could not provide the adequate funds – or
even the transparency of legislators exam-
ining their books.
That’s when this current gang of politi-
cians got behind the wheel and did a hit-
and-run, reforming the auto insurance law
to allow individual drivers to select vary-
ing levels of personal injury coverage with
descending levels of reduced premiums,
transferring risk from the state onto indi-
vidual drivers and their families.
Brian Peters, CEO of the Medical
Health and Hospital Association, says
even the new rates are unsustainable and
will push some hospitals into further
financial trouble.
“Many hospitals operate on razor-thin
margins and adequate compensation for
caring for auto accident patients helps
them stay afloat,” Peters says.
Plus, in-home providers had their reim-
bursement rates cut from 100 percent to 55
percent. They say they cannot sustain that
cut and will go out of business, leaving
hundreds of crash victims seeking few, if
any, alternatives.
The law caps hospital charges for
auto-related patients to 250 percent ofwhat Medicare pays. The situation is far
worse for those non-hospital-based pro-
viders that do not have Medicare codes
used by insurance companies. Those pro-
viders, including adult care homes, rehab
centers, nurse case managers and home
care agencies, will get only about 55 per-
cent of what they were charging in 2019.
Plus, the new law allows for only 56 hours
per week of in-home care if provided by a
relative, friend or business associate or
anyone living in the same household as the
injured party.
The prior law allowed for 24/7 cover-
age, if provided by a commercial agency.
However, the new law doesn’t apply to
attendant care provided by agency compa-
nies, making it nearly impossible for these
companies to continue to provide this
special care. Industry experts say the pay-
ments are far less than actual costs, which
will put the long-term care industry for
survivors in severe jeopardy.
Providers at every level express the
hope that elected leaders will address the
issue again soon, rather than just taking a
wait-and-see attitude while thousands of
helpless survivors and their loved ones
suffer in the meantime.
“We urge Gov. Whitmer, Senate
Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House
Speaker Jason Wentworth to sit down at
the table with auto insurance representa-
tives and those of us who provide care to
victims of catastrophic auto accidents,”
said Tom Judd, president of the Michigan
Brain Injury Provider Council. “We have a
chance to collectively find a solution that
would prevent a second traumatic event
from being inflicted on survivors.”
That’s what families of survivors like
Troy Hughes of Middleville and Jesus
Arias of Hastings, whose stories were
published in The Banner and Reminder,
respectively, pray for every day. They
want Michigan legislators to realize the
terrible situation they’re in and the poor
level of care they’ll receive in the future
due to the changes in the law.
Because survivors of auto accidents
number only in the thousands, they’re not
getting the attention they need, especially
when their level of care and quality of life
will be detrimentally impacted if state
legislators don’t act soon. By taking a
wait-and-see attitude, legislators are forc-
ing hospitals, in-home personal care, and
special services to get out of the business
of caring for these victims.
These vulnerable citizens need action
now before it’s too late.
Michigan had the best auto insurance
program in the nation, We all should have
been proud, knowing that our state left no
one behind. No helpless survivor was left
knocking at the door, desperately pleading
for help – until now.
What our legislators needed was just
some oversight of the MCCA and a work-
able formula for paying providers a rate
that was reasonable.
Instead, these cold-hearted so-called
public servants have maneuvered every
citizen of this state into being like the two
men in the Gospel of Mark who walked
past the stranger lying beaten and dying on
the road from Jerusalem before he was
rescued by the Good Samaritan.
We were once Samaritans. We must not
walk past our wounded now.
Call your state senator or representa-
tive. Tell them it’s time to act.The Hastings Banner
Devoted to the interests of Barry County since 1856
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1351 N. M-43 Highway • Phone: (269) 945-9554 • Fax: (269) 945-
News and press releases: [email protected] • Advertising: [email protected]Frederic Jacobs
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Benjamin Simon Taylor OwensSubscription Rates: $52 per year in Barry County
$60 per year in adjoining counties
$65 per year elsewherePOSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
P.O. Box 188
Hastings, MI 49058-
Second Class Postage Paid
at Hastings, MI 49058Parking lot project
proceeding
The historic Barry County
Courthouse parking lot in downtown
Hastings is being speedily replaced by
Katerberg VerHage Inc. at a cost not to
exceed $ $162,030 with funds to be
paid from the county's Building
Rehabilitation Fund. And motorists will
be happy to hear theFairly pulling together
Banner Oct. 20, 1960
Leaders of the movement to construct
a Barry County Community Building were
photographed during the groundbreaking
ceremonies Friday afternoon at the fair-
grounds “pulling together.” Adding a new
touch to such ceremonies, the leaders
symbolically as well as actually are pull-
ing together to accomplish their goal.
Here, Howard Ferris, chairman of the
Community Building Board of Directors,
is pictured handling the plow while Mayor
John W. Hewitt (third one on the rope)
and others are hauling away, breaking
the ground for the first phase of the proj-
ect, construction of the auditorium, which
will cost about $40,000. Chester Stowell
of the Stowell Building Company (facing
camera on the right) has the prime con-
tract of $15,834 to build the 60-by-100-
foot structure. That price does not include
the wiring, heating or flooring. [The
Community Building stood west of the
current Applebee’s restaurant on State
Street.] Photo by BarthGrowing up in suburban Detroit, Rich
Franklin wanted to become an Egyptologist.
“Egypt was my thing,” he said.
Franklin still remembers as a grade
school student taking field trips to the
Detroit Institute of Arts where he gazed at
the mummies and dreamed of one day
studying ancient history.
Then he realized he would have to endure
100-degree days in Egypt to do the job.
Instead, Franklin, now 54, opted to stay in
Michigan, where he is the superintendent of
the Barry Intermediate School District. The
local ISD provides services for students
with disabilities, early literacy coaching
and coordinates and communicates career,
technical and engineering opportunities,
among other functions.
Before Franklin set foot in the BISD
offices, he envisioned a number of career
paths. Archeology was among his first
ambitions. Then, as a high school student,
he thought he might become a preacher,
following in the footsteps of his parents,
who had both attended Bible school. By the
time he arrived at Michigan State University,
his interests had shifted again, and he start-
ed off with a major in accounting.
But during his freshman year at MSU,
Franklin found his path. He took a career-in-
terest inventory test to help determine his
post-college plans.
“I realized I’m a teacher,” he said, “that’s
what I’m cut out to be.”
Franklin has stuck with education. After
transferring to Tri-State University (now
Trine University) following his sophomore
year, he majored in English education with
a minor in U.S. history.
“I love language. I love literature. I love
writing. I love speaking. So that was, I
guess, more of an interest. But for me, [his-
tory and English] always went hand in
hand,” said Franklin, who still reads every
night before bed.
He graduated in 1989, entering into a
competitive job market for teachers, where
35 people might apply for one job, he
remembered. But he managed to secure an
opening at Westview Jr./Sr. High School in
Topeka, Ind., with his experience as an
Eagle Scout being the deciding factor.
Franklin, who has four kids, John,
Katherine, Zach and Zara, spent 12 years at
Westview as an English teacher. He helped
out as a competitive speech coach, student
council staff representative, assistant drama
director and junior class sponsor. There, he
met his wife, Ayesha Williamson-Franklin,
a music teacher.
In 2001, he decided to make the switch
into administration and back to Michigan,
working in Athens, where he served as prin-cipal at all three levels for eight years.
When the superintendent’s job opened in
that Calhoun County school district in
2009, he took the job and for six years dou-
bled as both principal and superintendent.
Half a decade later, Ronna Steel, then
superintendent at Barry ISD, approached
him at a meeting. She had taken a job with
the Hillsdale ISD, and BISD – which serves
Hastings Area Schools, Delton Kellogg
Schools and students living in the districts –
needed a new superintendent. Steel and
Frankin knew each other from Steel’s time at
the Union City School District near Athens.
“It might be your kind of thing,” she told
him about the ISD.
At first, Franklin hesitated. He liked liv-
ing in Athens.
“I’m very happy doing what I’m doing,”
he said. “I knew it was going to be a whole
new role to learn.”
It took a day or two, he said, “for a
switch to flip in my brain.” With his kids,
Zach and Zara, finishing fifth and fourth
grade, he decided it would be the best time
to make a change.
So Franklin started poking around and
doing research about BISD and Barry
County. He talked with former superinten-
dents. He Googled old Banner articles. He
tried every restaurant in the county he and
Ayesha could find.
From the onset, he said he found himself
drawn to the scenery of Barry County.
“You just start with the geography and
how gorgeous Barry County is – what a
beautiful place to live,” he said. “And how
varied. It’s very different down in Delton
versus up towards Woodland or something
like that. So you really run the gamut.”But as he kept digging, he found himself
more enthralled by the people and organi-
zations that make up Barry County.
“You’ve got a lot of people – whether
it’s in business or nonprofits or education,
whatever sector – that really believe in
being the best and are very proud of this
place,” Franklin said. “So I learned to call
that the Barry County way. There’s the
Barry County way of doing things, which
isn’t looking just to the state or just to the
government for solutions. It’s a lot more
self-made.”
He took the job and moved to Hastings.
Franklin has served as the BISD superin-
tendent of BISD since 2015, but it took a
year or two to adjust to the new role.
“Everybody thinks they know how
schools run because they went to school,”
he said. “Everybody in local school busi-
ness thinks they know how ISDs run
because they’ve used their services. And it
isn’t until you get on the other side [that
you] go, ‘Oh, this is what it means to pro-
vide those services.’”
For his role as the Barry Intermediate
School District superintendent, Rich
Franklin is this week’s Bright Light:
Favorite movie: “Monty Python & the
Holy Grail”
Best advice ever received: No one is
irreplaceable.
First job: Mowing lawns.
Favorite TV program: Currently, “Only
Murders in the Building.”
Person I’d most like to have met: Abe
Lincoln.
Person I’m glad to have met: John
Lewis, late Congressman from Georgia.
Greatest fear: Claustrophobia
What the world needs now is: Jesus
What I like about my job: Making a
difference for kids in the Delton and
Hastings communities.
The greatest president: Washington,
but that’s too easy; Reagan.
Favorite historic period: For study, it
varies; Imperial Rome right now.
If I could build/make something, I’d
like to try: Making some piece of furniture
that would outlast me.
Hobbies: I don’t have hobbies, I have
kids.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 any other reason? Send information to
Newsroom, Hastings Banner, 1351 N. M-
Highway, Hastings, MI 49058; or email
[email protected].Fred Jacobs, CEO
J-Ad Graphics, Inc.Rich Franklin