Still high on State Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey’s priority list is auto insurance reform.
With that, Shirkey told WKHM that he was meeting with the “most influential interest group related to auto insurance reform”, the Hospital Association. Shirkey wants to help them navigate any rough waters that may come up in insurance reform. “This is a sincere meeting to do some negotiations on how to get them to a soft landing,” Shirkey said. “With any kind of material reform, there the ones that will feel the biggest change.”
Senator Shirkey knows it won’t be a walk in the park, because of how heavily the hospital industry leans on auto insurance. “It’s going to be very tricky. Here’s the concept: Heretofore, hospitals in general, and they aren’t doing anything illegal, but they’ve relied upon heavily on auto insurance to subsidize their operations, and quite frankly in some cases they actually subsidize commercial insurance.”
He knows that with technology on the horizon that would nearly eliminate traffic accidents, it will be time for hospitals to build a better mousetrap. “When there are fewer and fewer car accidents, you will be required to change your business model then, all I’m asking is we just accelerate the timing in changing the business model, and let us partner with you to do that,” Shirkey said.
