Insurance Business readers didn’t have a lot of love for NDP MPP Jagmeet Singh, the author of the bill that has pegged auto insurance premium reductions at 15 per cent, and his recent criticism of changes being made to the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule.
Author Archives: Admin2
Beware the Fine Print in the Fighting Fraud and Reducing Insurance Rates Act
However, the devil is in the details. This round of changes could easily be called the Insurance Company Relief Act….I have said before that insurers in this province will not be happy until they can collect premiums and have no obligation to pay claims.
The government drank the Kool-Aid served by insurers. The sad fact is that victims will only learn of how they were sold out when they are injured, vulnerable, and looking for help that won’t be there.
Saving money on car insurance – Opinion Toronto Star
“In the name of expediency and cost savings to the insurance industry, the Wynne Liberals propose to wipe out recourse to an independent judicial system that safeguards the fundamental rights of citizens…” Saving money on car insurance Toronto Star March 10 2014
Auto Insurance Fraud: Was That Auto Accident Really An Accident?
Insurance fraud is big business. It’s estimated that 15 per cent of insurance premiums go to cover fraudulent insurance claims. In real numbers, that’s:
- $225, if your insurance premium is $1500;
- $300, if your premium is $2000; and,
- $375, if it’s $2500.
http://www.insurancehotline.com/auto-insurance-fraud-was-that-auto-accident-really-an-accident/
Big difference between what the Insurance Hotline tells us and the IBC tells us during Fraud Month –
-
$540 from each premium goes to fraud. #dontbescammed @FSCOTweets
IBC @InsuranceBureau Accident victims group, Ontario PC critic call for reform of auto insurers’ medical assessments
“We have watched the stakeholders and the legislators and their foremost experts spend two decades trying to get the Ontario auto insurance system to run right – but they have repeatedly and stubbornly ignored the key problem – the poor quality of the medico-legal assessments that fuel the disputes which backlog the system,” FAIR stated in a release March 7.
The Progressive Conservative finance critic, Vic Fedeli, also suggested the government needs to address the issue of insurers’ medical assessments in auto claims.
The PC party “suggested a truly independent third party injury-assessment protocol in order to clarify injuries and mitigate the demands for mediation in the first place,” Fedeli said in the legislature March 4. That, he added, “is missing” from Bill 171.
FAIR on DSR reform – 1: Legislation too hasty
“the bill’s proposal to align the rate with market conditions, meant to help reduce claims costs, really means slashing payouts to accident victims…..Many accident victims have to fund their own treatment and care, some have mortgaged or lost their homes, some have ended up on our social systems or borrowed funds at very high interest rates. Those are all common scenarios for Ontario’s accident victims whose compensation for their hardship has just been vaporized. It’s hard not to wonder where our legislators think that MVA victims get the funds to cover the costs of making a claim.” FAIR on DRS Reform Legislation too hasty TWI March 11 2014
How you can lower car insurance costs
The average annual saving will likely be in the 10-to-15 per cent range, if you’re prepared to have a GPS tracking device installed in your car, give up some privacy and trust your insurer not to misuse the information it collects about you.
Inside Queen’s Park: Liberals look to hijack NDP auto insurance strategy
If you’re too broke to offer the electorate tax cuts at election time, what else can you do to put money back in their wallets?
Well, you can lower their auto insurance rates. Who wouldn’t want to save 15 per cent when the average premium in Ontario is $1,600? That’s $240 a year back in a driver’s pocket. http://www.lawtimesnews.com/201403103825/commentary/liberals-look-to-hijack-ndp-auto-insurance-strategy
Ontario Trial Lawyers Association calls for amendments to proposed auto reforms
Why would an insurer pay out a claim when it can make money by delaying that claim indefinitely? When they are getting 4% on their money, and they only have to pay interest to the claimant at 1.3%, they can’t lose in that scenario,” OTLA president Charles Gluckstein charges.
OTLA reports it is also concerned about certain changes to Ontario’s auto insurance dispute resolution system (DRS). A recent review by Justice Douglas Cunningham includes a number of sensible reforms, OTLA notes, but the group strongly cautions the government to reconsider changes that it argues “would deprive injured accident victims of the opportunity to access the courts in cases involving denials of statutory accident benefits.” http://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/news/ontario-trial-lawyers-association-calls-for-amendments-to-proposed-auto-reforms/1002953628/
Usage based insurance promises rate relief for Ontario drivers
The technology is capable of gathering a lot more information. A telematics device can record all kinds of things: how quickly you accelerate and brake, whether you drift out of your lane, how sharply you take corners, whether you’re driving on busy highways or quiet side streets……“It’s almost limitless, the number of risk factors which you can access,” said George Cooke, the former CEO of Dominion Insurance company and an advisor for Intelligent Mechatronic Systems, a Waterloo telematics company.