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In recent years, a lot of attention has been paid to the ways in which auto insurance rates can be controlled one way or another at the regulatory level, and that has certainly been the case in Michigan. The Wolverine State has long had some of the highest coverage costs for drivers in the nation, and this stems in large part from the fact that it has a no-fault insurance system. Now, legislators there are making tweaks to that system as a means of potentially bringing down costs for all state residents, and it might therefore be wise for insurance agents to alert their clients about the impending changes.

A bill that would in some ways change the no-fault law so that less liability is carried by insurers - and so that rates fall for drivers - was narrowly passed by the state Senate 21-17, after major changes from the law's original intentions, according to a report from MLive. In addition, though, the bill also included a provision that created a state regulatory body that will specifically exist to deal with auto insurance fraud, as well as tie reimbursement rates for medical care to a state-wide average rather than the previous model, which was related to a person's income.

What remains?
However, it should be noted that many lawmakers in the state still feel the need to revisit reform for the no-fault system currently in place, because average drivers there pay thousands of dollars annually for coverage as a result, the report said. If any headway can be made here in the next few years - which isn't a given - it could provide significant relief to Michigan drivers.

""I think that this is the best plan we could put together,"" Sen. Joe Hune, a Hamburg Republican who sponsored the bill, told the site. ""I appreciate my colleagues' help. It's been a long road, 10 years at least in the making.""

The more insurance agents can do to make sure their clients understand the ways their state laws and other factors impact their auto insurance rates, the better off both they and their customers are likely to be. That's because studies have shown that consumers tend to feel better about their coverage when they have a broader knowledge of it, and a stronger relationship with their insurers or agents overall. Therefore, education efforts on the part of those professionals could go a long way toward boosting both customer satisfaction ratings and client retention rates in the future.

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