A 

bad auto accident can change 
everything in an instant. Metal 
meets metal, metal meets flesh, 
flesh meets concrete, and your anticipat-
ed future disappears. Before the accident, 
you had capabilities, competences, plans 
and hopes that become irrelevant to your 
new future. From now on, you might 
need help to get out of bed, get dressed, 
use the bathroom, eat, drink or even 
breathe.
And a bad auto accident could happen 
to anyone who gets in a car as driver or 
passenger, who rides a bicycle or even 

just crosses a street. It could happen to 
any of us. 
If you got into one of those terrible 
accidents in Michigan under the old auto 
insurance law, though, your insurance 
would pay for the services you would need. 
Ever since Oct. 1, 1973, all drivers had to 
pay for unlimited personal injury protection 
coverage (PIP) as part of the old no-fault 
insurance law.
One teenager survived an accident that 
cost her control of her body from the 
shoulders down. Dr. Owen Perlman, her 
doctor, describes her life after the accident: 

With medical care, attendant 
care and a home modified to 
accommodate her disabilities, 
she completed high school, 
then college, and then earned 
her Ph.D. She got an academic 
job. She married and had chil-
dren. 
She had the terrible fortune to undergo a 
catastrophic accident and the good fortune 
to have this accident under the old no-fault 
law. In the words of State Sen. Jeremy Moss, 
“The old law enabled victims not just to 
live, but to have a life.
” 

OUR COMMUNITY

Some Jewish policy makers want to restore full care to victims of 
catastrophic auto accidents who are suffering under Michigan’s 
new auto insurance reforms.
A Humanitarian Crisis

Dr. Owen 
Perlman

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

32 | APRIL 21 • 2022 

