Auto insurance minimums in Michigan
Michigan requires drivers to carry auto liability insurance, and the minimum limits are 50/100/10 at the floor. Written out, that is $50,000 of bodily injury liability per person, $100,000 of bodily injury liability per accident, and $10,000 of property damage liability per accident, under MCL 500.3009. The three numbers are always in that order, and they are the legal floor, not a coverage recommendation: a serious crash can produce losses far above the minimum, and the minimum is the most the insurer will pay, not the most the crash will cost.
The floor is not the whole story in Michigan, and the distinction matters. The lowest bodily injury limits a driver may select are $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident — but if no selection is made, the policy is issued at the $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident default. The $10,000 property damage figure is for damage in another state. The 2019 reform, effective 1 July 2020, raised the floor: any source quoting 20/40/10 describes the law before the reform and is stale. A driver comparing quotes should check which figure is on the declarations page — the floor, or the default.
The minimums are for private passenger vehicles, and they are not the only cover the state requires. Michigan also requires tiered personal injury protection, chosen by the driver: unlimited, $500,000, $250,000, $250,000 with exclusions, $50,000 for Medicaid enrollees only, or opt-out for a named insured with Medicare Parts A and B — with unlimited as the default if no choice is made. It also requires $1,000,000 of property protection insurance, which pays for damage a vehicle causes to other people's tangible property in Michigan, regardless of fault, and a mini-tort of up to $3,000 recoverable from the at-fault driver for vehicle damage not covered by collision. Uninsured and underinsured motorist cover is not required in Michigan: it is optional contractual cover, though the insurer must offer uninsured motorist cover. After a suspension, proof of financial responsibility is filed with the Department of State as a certificate of insurance rather than under the SR-22 label used in other states. Lenders and leasing companies require more again: a financed or leased car usually has to carry collision and comprehensive cover, and often higher liability limits, because the lender's interest in the car has to be protected. A driver who buys only the state minimum and skips collision cover has no cover for their own car at all, and the state minimum does not change that.
Fault, PIP and uninsured motorist cover in Michigan
Michigan is a no-fault state under MCL 500.3101 and the sections that follow. After a crash, your own PIP pays your medical bills, wage loss, attendant care and replacement services first, no matter who caused the crash. The driver chooses a medical level: unlimited, $500,000, $250,000, $250,000 with exclusions, $50,000 for Medicaid enrollees only, or opt-out for a named insured with Medicare Parts A and B. Unlimited is the default if no choice is made. An uninsured owner or registrant loses PIP entitlement under MCL 500.3113(b).
Your right to sue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering is limited by a verbal threshold only, under MCL 500.3135: death, serious impairment of body function, or permanent serious disfigurement. There is no monetary threshold in Michigan. Modified comparative fault also applies: there is no recovery for non-economic loss if the driver is more than 50% at fault. Property protection insurance, at $1,000,000, pays for damage a vehicle causes to other people's tangible property in Michigan, regardless of fault, under MCL 500.3121; the $10,000 property damage liability above is only for damage in another state. The mini-tort lets a driver recover up to $3,000 from the at-fault driver for vehicle damage not covered by collision, under MCL 500.3135(3)(e).
Uninsured and underinsured motorist cover is the protection against the other driver's lack of cover, and its position in Michigan is: it is not required, it is optional contractual cover with no statutory floor, and the insurer must offer uninsured motorist cover. A driver who is hit by an uninsured driver and carries the cover claims on their own uninsured motorist cover, and a driver hit by a driver whose limits are too low claims on underinsured motorist cover where they have bought it. The practical point is the same in every state: the minimum liability limits say what the other driver must carry, and uninsured motorist cover says what happens when they do not carry it — and the two together decide whether a crash with an uninsured driver leaves you paying out of pocket.
No-fault is the system most often confused with the minimums, and it is worth separating the two. The minimums say how much liability cover you must carry. No-fault says who pays for injuries after a crash. Michigan is a no-fault state, so PIP is the first payer for injuries, and the verbal threshold alone gates lawsuits for pain and suffering: death, serious impairment of body function, or permanent serious disfigurement. There is no monetary threshold, and no non-economic recovery where the driver is more than 50% at fault Damage to cars is still handled by fault, as in every state. The site's no-fault guide explains the twelve no-fault states, the choice states, and the thresholds that limit lawsuits for pain and suffering. Read the page for your own state before relying on the general description, because the general description is a map and the state page is the road.
Home insurance in Michigan
No state law in Michigan requires a homeowner to carry homeowners insurance. The requirement, where it exists, comes from the lender: a mortgage lender almost always requires homeowners cover as a condition of the loan, and the lender sets the dwelling limit it will accept. A homeowner without a mortgage is not legally required to insure the house, but an uninsured house is an uninsured asset — a fire, a storm or a burst pipe can destroy the largest asset most people own, and there is no cover to rebuild it. The site's guide to whether homeowners insurance is required explains the lender position in full.
A standard homeowners policy in Michigan has the same six parts as everywhere in the country: dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, personal liability and medical payments, as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners describes them. The dwelling limit is set by the estimated rebuild cost, not the market value, and the site's homeowners cost calculator works that figure out from the living area and a rebuild cost per square foot. Flood and earthquake are excluded from a standard policy and need separate cover — flood through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer, earthquake through a separate earthquake policy — and the site's flood and earthquake guides explain the routes. Your flood zone is an address-level fact, not a state-level one, so check the zone for the address, not for the state.
The deductible deserves the same attention in Michigan as anywhere else. The minimum deductible offered by most insurers is $500 or $1,000, according to the Insurance Information Institute, and for wind, hail and hurricane damage the deductible is often a percentage of the home's insured value, typically 1% to 5% according to the III. On a home insured for $300,000, a 2% wind and hail deductible is $6,000. The site's tornado and hail guides explain the percentage deductible and the cosmetic-damage rule in full, and the declarations page should show both deductibles — the flat all-other-perils amount and the percentage wind and hail amount — before the policy is bought.
Health insurance in Michigan
Health cover in Michigan runs through the marketplace: Michigan residents enroll in marketplace cover through HealthCare.gov. Enroll through HealthCare.gov for marketplace cover and premium tax credits. Michigan runs no state marketplace of its own.
Medicaid in Michigan: Michigan has expanded Medicaid — the Healthy Michigan Plan — since 1 April 2014, so adults can qualify on income up to 138% of the poverty level. Because Michigan expanded Medicaid in 2014, the coverage gap that exists in non-expansion states does not apply here.
Short-term health insurance in Michigan: Short-term health plans are sold in Michigan, capped at a single 185-day term in a 365-day period. A Michigander who needs cover for a gap should still check the marketplace first. The site's short-term hub guide explains the federal duration rule, the August 2025 pause on enforcing it, and the alternatives that cover more.
The regulator, complaints and how to check a quote
Insurance in Michigan is regulated by the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services. The regulator licenses insurers, approves the rating plans that set premiums and discounts, and handles complaints when an insurer's conduct is in question. If a claim is denied or underpaid, complain to the regulator with the policy, the declarations page and the claim correspondence in hand, because the regulator decides on the record.
Before buying any policy in Michigan, run the checks in this order. First, the licence: is the insurer licensed in Michigan, under the name on the policy. Second, the cover: do the limits match the need — the auto minimums above are the floor, not the recommendation, and the home dwelling limit should match the rebuild cost. Third, the settlement method and the exclusions: is the roof settled at replacement cost or actual cash value, is flood covered or excluded. Fourth, the deductible: what is the flat deductible, is there a percentage wind and hail deductible, and can you pay it from savings on the day of a loss. Fifth, the price: compare like with like, on identical limits, identical deductibles and identical cover types, and compare the total cost, not the premium alone.
Keep the policy, the declarations page, the insurer's claims number, and the regulator's contact details together where you can reach them after a loss. The site's editorial policy explains how this site reviews its guides, and the contact page gives the address for questions about the site itself — but for a question about a policy, the insurer and the regulator are the authorities, not this site.
Worked example
Consider an ILLUSTRATIVE driver in Michigan buying a first policy. She starts with the state minimums — 50/100/10 at the floor — and asks whether they are enough: a serious crash can produce medical bills above the per-person limit and property damage above the property-damage limit, so she compares quotes at higher limits as well as at the minimum, on identical deductibles. She reads the fault section above and notes that her own PIP pays first, that she must choose a PIP medical level rather than accept a single figure, and that she cannot sue for pain and suffering unless her injury causes death, serious impairment of body function, or permanent serious disfigurement. She checks the home policy against the rebuild cost and reads both deductibles on the declarations page. She checks the health position — the marketplace route, the Medicaid position, and whether a short-term plan is even sold in Michigan — before assuming that a short-term plan is an option. The example's value is the method, not any figure in it: no premium is stated, because premiums vary by insurer and by driver. What it shows is that the state rules are the starting point for every quote, and a quote judged against another state's rules is a quote misjudged.