What is the minimum car insurance required in Michigan?

Liability of $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for bodily injury with $10,000 property damage, property protection insurance of $1 million for damage to property in Michigan, and a PIP medical selection. If you make no PIP selection, unlimited coverage applies by default.

What are the Michigan PIP medical coverage levels?

Six options, including $50,000 for Medicaid-enrolled drivers, $250,000, $500,000, unlimited, and opt-out routes for drivers with qualifying health coverage or Medicare. Unlimited is the default if you do not choose.

Should I choose a lower PIP level in Michigan to save money?

Only if you have verified that your health coverage would genuinely absorb a catastrophic injury. The lower tiers are cheaper because they shift that risk to your health plan, Medicare, or your own assets. Carriers were required to cut PIP premiums substantially for the lower levels — 45 per cent or more for the $50,000 option — but the saving reflects real transferred risk.

Can Michigan insurers use my credit score?

No. Michigan’s reform barred carriers from using credit score, along with sex, marital status, home ownership, educational attainment and occupation, to set auto rates. Quotes here lean more heavily on your driving record and vehicle.

What is property protection insurance in Michigan?

PPI is a Michigan-specific coverage paying up to $1 million for damage your vehicle causes to other people’s property within Michigan — buildings, fences, legally parked vehicles. It is required and separate from ordinary property damage liability.

Michigan

Auto insurance in Michigan: what’s required, and what isn’t

By Gaby Valencia, Insurance Content Editor

Last verified August 26, 2026

Michigan rebuilt its auto insurance system in 2020, and the result is unlike anywhere else. Personal injury protection used to be unlimited and compulsory, which made Michigan the most expensive state in the country. Now you choose from six PIP medical levels — and unlimited is still what you get if you do not choose. Michigan also bars carriers from rating on credit score, education, occupation and several other non-driving factors, which few states do.

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What Michigan requires you to carry

Minimum liability limits in Michigan — 50/100/10
Bodily injury, per person	$50,000
Bodily injury, per accident	$100,000
Property damage, per accident	$10,000

Michigan also requires

PIP medical — you choose the level, and unlimited is the default: Since the 2020 reform, Michigan drivers choose from six PIP medical levels rather than being given one. Options include $50,000 (for Medicaid-enrolled drivers), $250,000, $500,000, unlimited, and opt-out routes for drivers with qualifying health coverage or Medicare. If you do not choose, unlimited applies by default.
Property protection insurance (PPI) — $1 million: Michigan requires PPI, which pays up to $1 million for damage your vehicle causes to other people’s property in Michigan — buildings, fences, legally parked vehicles. It is separate from ordinary property damage liability.

These are floors, not recommendations. Michigan sets the minimum a driver may legally carry. It does not assess whether that amount would cover a claim you caused. Anything above your limits is your personal exposure.

How Michigan enforces it

Michigan requires no-fault insurance on every registered vehicle and verifies against carrier data. Driving without it carries fines, licence sanctions and — importantly — the loss of your own PIP benefits if you are injured in a crash while uninsured.

How rates are set in Michigan

Michigan is a no-fault state. Your own PIP pays your medical costs after a crash regardless of fault, and your ability to sue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering is limited to cases meeting a statutory threshold.

The 2019 reform, effective for policies issued or renewed after 1 July 2020, did three things: it replaced compulsory unlimited PIP with six choosable levels, it required carriers to reduce statewide average PIP premiums for eight years by amounts scaled to the level chosen, and it barred a list of non-driving rating factors.

The Department of Insurance and Financial Services regulates carriers, publishes the consumer material explaining the PIP levels, and has commissioned independent analysis of the reform’s effects. Michigan also requires property protection insurance — $1 million of coverage for damage your vehicle does to property in Michigan — which is separate from ordinary property damage liability.

Credit-based insurance scores in Michigan

Michigan restricts the use of credit information in auto insurance rating. The 2019 reform legislation also barred carriers from using several non-driving factors — including sex, marital status, home ownership, educational attainment, occupation and credit score — to set rates. Michigan is one of the few states to have moved this far against non-driving rating factors.

What actually moves your premium here

The 2020 reform changed what you are buying

Before July 2020 every Michigan policy carried unlimited lifetime PIP medical benefits, and Michigan had the most expensive auto insurance in the country as a result. The reform replaced that with six choosable levels and required carriers to cut average PIP premiums for eight years — 45 per cent or more for the $50,000 option, down to 10 per cent or more for unlimited.

Unlimited is still the default if you do not choose

If you make no PIP medical selection, unlimited coverage applies. That is the safest default the legislature could have picked, but it is also the most expensive — so a Michigan driver who has never actively chosen is paying for the top tier.

Cheaper PIP means someone else pays your medical bills

The lower PIP tiers are not free money. Choosing $50,000 instead of unlimited means that a catastrophic injury runs past your auto policy and into your health insurance, Medicare, or your own assets. The lower options exist for drivers whose other coverage genuinely picks up the difference. Verify that it does before choosing one.

Michigan bans several non-driving rating factors

Alongside the PIP changes, Michigan barred carriers from rating on sex, marital status, home ownership, education, occupation and credit score. That makes Michigan quotes depend more on your driving record and your vehicle than in almost any other state.

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Decide your PIP medical level deliberately rather than by default, and check what your health coverage would actually do in a catastrophic injury before choosing anything below unlimited. The lower tiers move risk onto your health plan and your assets — which is fine if they can carry it and expensive if they cannot.

Because Michigan bars credit, education and occupation from rating, quotes here depend more on your record and vehicle than elsewhere. That narrows the spread, but it also means a clean record is worth more in Michigan than in a state that offsets it against other factors.

One habit matters more than any single carrier choice: re-check every year or two, and again after anything that changes your risk profile — a move across town, a new vehicle, a driver added or removed, or a violation ageing off your record. Carriers re-weight their rating factors continuously, so the one that priced you best three years ago is often not the one that prices you best today.

If you need an SR-22 in Michigan

Michigan does not use the SR-22 form the way most states do. Reinstatement after an insurance-related suspension runs through the Secretary of State and requires proof of current coverage plus reinstatement fees. An SR-22 obligation imposed by another state belongs to that state.

Michigan auto insurance FAQ

What is the minimum car insurance required in Michigan?: Liability of $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for bodily injury with $10,000 property damage, property protection insurance of $1 million for damage to property in Michigan, and a PIP medical selection. If you make no PIP selection, unlimited coverage applies by default.
What are the Michigan PIP medical coverage levels?: Six options, including $50,000 for Medicaid-enrolled drivers, $250,000, $500,000, unlimited, and opt-out routes for drivers with qualifying health coverage or Medicare. Unlimited is the default if you do not choose.
Should I choose a lower PIP level in Michigan to save money?: Only if you have verified that your health coverage would genuinely absorb a catastrophic injury. The lower tiers are cheaper because they shift that risk to your health plan, Medicare, or your own assets. Carriers were required to cut PIP premiums substantially for the lower levels — 45 per cent or more for the $50,000 option — but the saving reflects real transferred risk.
Can Michigan insurers use my credit score?: No. Michigan’s reform barred carriers from using credit score, along with sex, marital status, home ownership, educational attainment and occupation, to set auto rates. Quotes here lean more heavily on your driving record and vehicle.
What is property protection insurance in Michigan?: PPI is a Michigan-specific coverage paying up to $1 million for damage your vehicle causes to other people’s property within Michigan — buildings, fences, legally parked vehicles. It is required and separate from ordinary property damage liability.

Sources

Requirements on this page were verified against Michigan’s own regulator and motor vehicle agency on the date shown at the top. Rules change — if you are making a decision that turns on an exact figure, confirm it at the source.

Consumer help in Michigan: Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services, (877) 999-6442.