Michigan Court of Appeals; Docket No. 78-261; Published
Judges Gillis, Holbrook, and Maher; Per Curiam; (With Holbrook Dissenting)
Official Michigan Reporter Citation: 87 Mich App 555; Link to Opinion 
STATUTORY INDEXING:
Standards for Deductibility of State and Federal Governmental Benefits [§3109(1)]
Medicare Benefits [§3109(1)]
TOPICAL INDEXING:
Legislative Purpose and Intent
CASE SUMMARY:
In another decision dealing with the subtraction of governmental benefits from no-fault benefits under §3109(1) of the no-fault act, this panel of the Court of Appeals held in a 2-1 decision that §3109(1) was constitutional and accordingly, Medicare benefits could lawfully, be subtracted from no-fault benefits under this section to avoid duplicative recovery.
In no holding, the majority concurred with the holdings in Smart v Citizens (item number 75) and Greene v State Farm (item number 89) and adopted Judge Bashara's dissenting opinion in O'Donnell (item number 20).
Judge D. E. Holbrook dissented on the basis of the prior Court of Appeals decisions in Pollock v Frankenmuth (item number 41) and Mielke v Michigan Millers (item number 74).
[Author's Comment: The above decision did not specify or distinguish what kind of Medicare benefits were involved, Type A (mandatory) or Type B (optional).]
