The Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault (CPAN) is a broad-based coalition made up of health care providers, doctors, hospitals, patient advocates and consumer groups that are fighting to keep Michigan’s no-fault auto insurance system intact. In the summer of 2011, Michigan’s auto insurance industry drafted legislation, House Bill 4936, that would fundamentally end Michigan’s auto no-fault insurance system.
The auto insurance industry is one of the most powerful and well-funded lobbies in the state of Michigan. When combined with the fact that Michigan’s state government was controlled by a Republican legislature, governor, attorney general, secretary of state and supreme court – all of whom were in favor of the legislation – the situation looked dire for CPAN and its members.
Truscott Rossman developed a strategic communications campaign that leveraged social media, earned media, grassroots advocacy, and paid advertising to raise awareness about the impact the insurance industry’s proposal would have on accident survivors and the state Medicaid system. By “doing the math” for lawmakers, the campaign demonstrated the negative impacts of the legislation, including an exponential cost increase to the state’s welfare system as a result of reduced benefits for victims of catastrophic accidents.
