Her story underscores the challenge in finding a balance in efforts to rein in the excessive costs associated with no-fault insurance without shredding a valuable safety net for the injured.
After a horrific car crash left Ashley Hogan paralyzed from the waist down at age 22, she thought she would be living with her parents for the rest of her life, relying on them for everything.
But thanks to Michigan's no-fault system and its unlimited lifetime benefits, today she has her own wheelchair-accessible house in Midland, about eight hours of daily attendant care and has been able to return to work.
"It’s a great program. Without it, I don’t know where I would be, probably in a nursing home somewhere living off the state," said Hogan, now 26, who broke her back and severed her spine in the September 2013 Jeep accident. “I never thought that I’d be able to take care of myself the way I've been able to."
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Hogan's story underscores the challenge in finding a balance in efforts to rein in the excessive costs that have made car insurance premiums in Michigan some of the nation's highest, without shredding a valuable safety net for people who are injured. Her benefits would not have been possible with a strict monetary cap on no-fault payouts.
Her ranch house, partly financed by her auto insurance company, was designed to help her live as independently as possible, with features like lowered kitchen countertops and a dishwasher she can use from her wheelchair.
The home also has wider doorways, a wheelchair-ready shower and a lift that connects to the finished basement, where Hogan exercises on a stationary hand-cycle.
"So it is completely accessible for me," said Hogan, who after years of rehabilitation was able to go back to work as a school district secretary. "I’m probably as recovered as I’m going to be. You can always work on arm strength or core strength, but as far as walking and that stuff, I’m probably as far as I’ll get."
Hogan was a passenger in a Jeep that had a rollover accident in Gladwin County after its driver lost control. She sued the driver for driving recklessly.
Her house was built between fall 2015 and spring 2016 with about $275,000 worth of materials, paid for by Hogan's no-fault auto insurer, Auto-Owners Insurance. The construction labor was donated through a program involving the City of Midland, building trades students at Midland High School and Dow High School, and a nonprofit group for those with disabilities called the ARC of Midland.
Auto-Owners agreed that in Hogan's situation, a specially accessible home was an eligible expense for her long-term care. And building a new home was cheaper than trying to modify her parents' existing one.
Hogan contributed nearly $50,000 to the project, including the purchase of the property, from proceeds of a $100,000 settlement from a negligence lawsuit filed against the Jeep driver on her behalf by the Sam Bernstein Law Firm. The firm took a standard one-third cut of that settlement after costs were deducted as its contingency fee.
Auto insurance companies in Michigan are not legally compelled to buy a new house for a catastrophically injured person. This stems from a May 2013 Michigan Supreme Court decision — Admire v. Auto-Owners Insurance — that found if people are injured in crashes, no-fault insurers aren't required to buy all-new vehicles that are accessible for people with disabilities; they only have to pay for modifications to make a person's existing vehicle more accessible. Even though that ruling was specifically about vehicles, lawyers say it has come to apply to accessible houses, as well.
"They won’t make you any better than you would have been before" the accident, said Beth Klein of the Bernstein law firm.
But Auto-Owners voluntarily agreed to pay for the new house's construction materials because the total cost of the project, including the volunteer labor, was cheaper than building modifications to Hogan's parents' house, where she otherwise would have lived.
“It would not have been able to happen after that Supreme Court ruling if not for this partnership, so that was pretty cool," said Jan Lampman, executive director of the Arc of Midland.
“The home is going to last Ashley her entire life and it is completely accessible to her. It’s going to cost the citizens of the world less money to support Ashley in the future because she has this barrier-free home."
The no-fault benefits also paid for Hogan's wheelchair, a standing frame chair and her hand-cycle, which she also can ride outside on the roads. Additionally, the insurance company continues to pay for about eight hours of daily in-home attendant care provided by a home health agency. Insurance also paid a lost-wages benefit before Hogan was able to return to work.
Hogan said she is extremely thankful for Michigan's no-fault system. In no other state would auto insurance have provided so many benefits and helped build her house.
"I really thought I was going to have to go back and live with my parents for the rest of my life at 22, and that was a grim thought, too, because who wants to live with their parents the rest of their lives?" Hogan said. "It was nice to have something there so I was taken care of."
Hogan's ongoing benefits from the accident, such as attendant care, are now reimbursed through no-fault's Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association program. The association pays auto insurance companies once expenses surpass $545,000 for an injured individual.
The association currently assesses auto insurers an annual $160 per-vehicle fee for the program, which gets passed on to motorists.
Klein said that Michigan's uncapped no-fault benefits have helped Hogan and many of her other clients regain dignity in their lives and a measure of independence following devastating accidents.
"If it wasn’t for the no-fault, they wouldn’t be able to have the self-esteem and the confidence and the wherewithal," Klein said.