Insurance Companies Make Billions Yet They Try to Limit Benefits

If you were injured in a car accident in Delaware, the insurance coverage you depend on to pay your medical bills and replace your lost wages was directly in the crosshairs of a state legislative task force. For months, a powerful coalition of insurance industry lobbyists and their allies pushed proposals that would have gutted your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits, capped what your doctors could charge to treat your injuries, and weakened a critical legal protection that prevents insurance companies from double-dipping at your expense.

The Delaware Trial Lawyers Association (DTLA) — of which I am a proud member and advocate — fought back. And when the Automobile Insurance Reform Task Force issued its Final Report on March 10, 2026, the most dangerous proposals for accident victims were not included.

This is not a story about politics. This is a story about whether injured Delawareans — people hurt through no fault of their own — can still get the medical care they need and hold negligent drivers accountable. The outcome of the SCR 111 Task Force matters to every driver in this state, and you deserve to know what happened.

What Was the SCR 111 Automobile Insurance Reform Task Force?

In June 2025, the Delaware General Assembly passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 111, sponsored by Senator Spiros Mantzavinos and Representative Bill Bush. The resolution created the Automobile Insurance Reform Task Force and charged it with finding ways to lower auto insurance premiums for Delaware drivers and businesses.

The task itself was legitimate — Delaware drivers pay among the highest auto insurance premiums in the country. At an average of $302 per month, Delaware ranks fifth in the nation, far above the national average of $208 per month. Something does need to be done about that. No one disputes it.

But the question was always how. Lower premiums can be achieved by investing in road safety, cracking down on uninsured drivers, improving the insurance market, and reducing fraud. Or they can be achieved by stripping injured victims of their benefits and their rights. The insurance industry — which made $126.5 billion in profits nationally in 2024 — naturally preferred the latter approach.

The Task Force included legislators, insurance industry representatives, medical providers, consumer advocates, and one representative from the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association: Stephen Morrow, who served as the DTLA’s appointed member and delivered a data-driven presentation that directly challenged the insurance industry’s narrative.

What the Insurance Industry Pushed For — And Why It Would Have Hurt You

From the very beginning, the insurance industry’s preferred solution was a medical fee schedule — a cap on what doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, and other healthcare providers can charge when treating car accident injuries under your PIP coverage. The concept sounds reasonable on the surface: limit costs, lower premiums. But the data told a very different story.

The DTLA’s presentation methodically dismantled the medical fee schedule argument with evidence. In Delaware, medical costs account for only an estimated 6.4 to 9.6 percent of PIP costs — compared to 71 percent in the workers’ compensation system where fee schedules already exist. Applying a fee schedule designed for workers’ compensation to auto accident injury care would be attacking a cost driver that barely exists in the auto insurance context.

The evidence from other states was equally damning. Florida, New York, and Michigan all have fee schedules — and none of them have consistently lower premiums as a result. In Michigan, a 2021 reform that included fee schedule changes led to at least seven documented patient deaths linked to loss of care, forced layoffs, and providers abandoning auto accident patients entirely to avoid unsustainable reimbursements. Delaware already has 15 percent of providers leaving the workers’ compensation program due to low reimbursements. A fee schedule in auto insurance would almost certainly accelerate that exodus.

What the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association Proved to the Task Force

The DTLA’s core argument was straightforward, factual, and backed by data: Delaware does not have a litigation cost problem. It does not have a “lawsuit abuse” problem. And restricting injured victims’ access to legal recourse would accomplish nothing for consumers while delivering a windfall to the same insurance companies already generating over $126 billion in annual profits.

The DTLA also made a point that gets lost in the premium debate: Delaware’s existing legal framework already protects insurers from the kind of lawsuit environment that drives up costs in states like Florida. Florida enacted sweeping tort reform in 2023 and still has the highest auto insurance premiums in the country. Why? Because the real cost drivers — repair costs, uninsured drivers, rising healthcare costs, and climate-related claims — were never addressed by attacking victims’ rights.

How the Task Force Ruled: What Was Rejected, and What Was Approved

After thirteen meetings spanning August 2025 through March 2026, the Task Force adopted twenty-six recommendations — and crucially, rejected six of the most harmful proposals that had been under consideration.

What Was Defeated

The proposed medical fee schedule was brought to a vote and failed decisively — receiving only four of the eleven votes required for approval. The Task Force’s own discussion section states plainly that medical providers raised valid concerns about provider dropout and access to care, that no clear data demonstrated fee schedules would meaningfully reduce premiums, and that PIP benefits are already capped, making a fee schedule largely redundant.

The collateral source rule proposal — which would have allowed insurance companies to offset your claim by whatever your health insurance already paid — received only six of the required eleven votes and was rejected. Task Force members noted that “no data had been presented to suggest that eliminating the collateral source rule would reduce premiums.” This proposal would have directly put money back into insurance company pockets by using your own health coverage against your recovery.

The standardized care pathway proposal, which would have restricted your doctor’s ability to make individualized treatment decisions after your accident, was withdrawn after Task Force members raised concerns about its applicability to the diversity of motor vehicle crash injuries.

What Was Approved (The 26 Final Recommendations)

The approved recommendations focus on areas that can legitimately improve the system without attacking injured victims. They include strengthening enforcement against uninsured drivers (Delaware’s 17.6 percent uninsured rate is a real cost driver), improving the Delaware insurance market to attract more carrier competition, expanding driver education programs, addressing repair cost transparency, and exploring fraud reduction measures. On litigation, the only approved recommendation was to further promote Delaware’s existing arbitration framework — a measured, non-punitive approach.

Why This Matters for You as a Delaware Driver and Accident Victim

If you are in a car accident tomorrow, your PIP coverage remains intact — providing a minimum of $15,000 per person and $30,000 per accident for your medical bills and lost wages, regardless of who was at fault, with higher limits available if you purchased additional coverage. Your doctors can still bill at the rates necessary to keep their practices open. And if the at-fault driver’s insurance does not fully compensate you, you still have the legal right to pursue full and fair compensation — without the artificial barriers a fee schedule or collateral source restriction would have imposed.

Timeline: The Road to the Final Report

• 1
  June 26, 2025 — SCR 111 Passes the Delaware General Assembly
  Sponsored by Senator Mantzavinos and Representative Bush, the resolution creates the Task Force and charges it with lowering auto insurance premiums, with explicit focus on medical costs and fee schedules.
• 2
  August–November 2025 — Stakeholder Presentations
  The Task Force hears from the insurance industry, medical providers, the DTLA, the Department of Insurance, and consumer advocates. The DTLA presents data showing litigation costs are not a meaningful driver of Delaware’s high premiums.
• 3
  December 2025–February 2026 — Deliberation and Proposal Development
  Controversial proposals — including the medical fee schedule, collateral source rule changes, and care pathway restrictions — are actively debated. The DTLA and medical providers push back with data and real-world consequences from other states.
• 4
  January 20, 2026 — Deadline Extended via SCR 127
  The original January 30 reporting deadline is extended to March 10, 2026 to allow the Task Force to complete its deliberations.
• 5
  March 2026 — Final Vote and Report
  The medical fee schedule receives only 4 of 11 required votes. The collateral source rule receives only 6 of 11. Both fail. The Final Report is issued March 10, 2026 with 26 approved recommendations — none restricting injured victims’ access to care or legal recourse.

This Fight Is Not Over — What Comes Next

The Task Force report is a recommendation document, not a law. The Delaware General Assembly will now consider whether to act on any or all of the twenty-six approved recommendations. It may also choose to introduce new legislation related to the proposals the Task Force rejected — including a medical fee schedule or collateral source rule changes. In the current political environment, with insurance premium costs remaining a visible issue, that pressure will not disappear.

The DTLA and personal injury attorneys across Delaware will continue to monitor legislative activity closely. Any bill that targets injured victims’ benefits or legal rights under the guise of “insurance reform” will face the same rigorous, data-driven opposition it faced in the Task Force. The facts have not changed: Delaware does not have a litigation problem — it has a market structure, uninsured driver, and repair cost problem, and those are the issues that should be addressed.

You can review the full SCR 111 Task Force legislative history — including all meeting minutes, stakeholder presentations, and the Final Report — on the Delaware General Assembly’s website.

What to Do If You’ve Been Injured in a Delaware Car Accident

The law as it stands today still protects you. If you were hurt in a car accident in Delaware — whether as a driver, passenger, pedestrian, or cyclist — here is what you need to know:

Insurance companies are not on your side after an accident. They are businesses with profit motives, and their adjusters are trained to minimize what they pay you. Having an experienced Delaware personal injury attorney in your corner from the beginning can make an enormous difference in the outcome of your case — and it costs you nothing upfront, because we work on contingency.