LANSING, MI -- The assessment Michiganders pay to the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association for unlimited injury coverage will rise from $160 to $170 per vehicle starting Saturday.

The MCCA is a statutorily-established nonprofit that all auto insurers pay into for Personal Injury Protection due to the state's auto no-fault system. The cost is built into premiums Michigan motorists pay. When a crash results in serious injury, a person's auto insurer pays the initial $555,000 in medical costs and the MCCA reimburses for costs afterward.

The MCCA made the decision to raise fees back in March, but the higher fees were not implemented until July 1.

In a press release at the time, the MCCA attributed the $10 increase to an increase in the estimated cost to pay existing claims.

The Insurance Alliance of Michigan in a press release this week pointed to Michigan's unlimited lifetime medical care as driving the increase.

"Michigan drivers are tired of opening their pocketbooks to pay more and more for a costly mandate that many can no longer afford," said Dyck Van Koevering, general counsel for the group. "It's time to roll up our sleeves and work with the Legislature to fix Michigan's broken, outdated no-fault system."

The legislature has taken a few cracks at changing the system and lowering costs in recent years, but no proposal has passed both chambers.

Josh Hovey, a spokesperson for the Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault, said it was impossible to know why rates were going up because the MCCA is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The group sued over that, but the Michigan Supreme Court recently declined to take it up.

"Michigan drivers deserve to know why these rates are going up, and the only way to do that is through the transparency at the MCCA," he said.

The assessment is recalculated each year, and goes from July 1 through June 30 of the following year. The highest it's been was $186 for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 cycles.