Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has asked the state’s insurance regulator to audit the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association after it said on Wednesday it would raise its annual fee by 14.6 percent, or $28, to $220 for every insured vehicle in Michigan.

The fees go toward covering catastrophic medical claims from auto accidents, but the MCCA has never been particularly transparent about how it operates, its finances or how it sets its fees.

So says our guest on today’s episode, Bobby Raitt, a principal at Michigan Auto Law in Farmington Hills who has worked with lawmakers in Lansing on auto-insurance reform since 2005. “It’s important, it’s meaningful and hopefully it’s a good start” toward fixing Michigan’s broken auto insurance system, he said.

Michigan has the nation’s highest auto insurance rates, and nowhere is insurance more expensive than in Detroit. The announcement of the fee increase follows a study from the University of Michigan that found auto insurance is well above what is considered affordable in 97 percent of the state’s zip codes. While the federal government considers auto insurance affordable at 2 percent of an average income, Michigan’s no-fault insurance eats up 36 percent of drivers’ income in some zip codes in Detroit.

“Michiganders deserve to know why they are being forced to shell out hundreds of dollars in additional fees for car insurance, which is why I’m ordering an audit to provide drivers with the transparency they deserve,” Whitmer said in a statement.

Thanks for listening to Daily Detroit. Find us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and consider supporting us by becoming a member on Patreon.