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We now have an insurance industry that appears to be spending more money to assess injuries than it does treating those injuries and this practice drives the claims costs up dramatically. Some insurers will assess victims until they get the report they want. Or pay exorbitant prices to assessors for preparation for court hearings that equates to more than they would pay in a year of income replacement. Those are the same claims costs that Ontario’s insurers complain about and that are generated at their end of the business. Rather than control their spending, it has become a game of slash the benefits at every opportunity to preserve their profit margins. It’s irresponsible to pass on the expenses of the often incompetent insurer or their deceptive business practices onto the claimant or pass these costs on to all of Ontario’s drivers through premiums.

FAIR Submission to the 3 Year Review March 31 2014 (1)

Insurers spent $171 million on “insurer initiated assessments” for victims who were injured in accidents between January 1, 2011 and June 30, 2013. During that same time period, insurers spent $359 million on treatment for that same group. For every dollar that insurers spent treating someone to help them get better, they spent almost 50 cents assessing them. Those assessments, which often lead to denials of treatment, have a huge negative impact on a victim’s emotional well-being and help to create the adversarial first-party benefits system that often forces victims to litigate with their insurers for years in order to obtain necessary treatment. Thus, for every dollar spent helping a victim to get better, 50 cents is spent making them worse!

OTLA Three-Year Review Submissions – March 31 2014 FINAL

Time is running out to let our government know about how consumers and accident victims feel about the quality of Ontario’s automobile insurance coverage. Let your voice be heard before the government caves in again to the demands of Ontario’s wealthy insurance providers and forgets – it matters what happens when you have to use the policy only to find out the coverage isn’t there or you’ve been denied on the basis of a bogus medical report or you are without treatment you need or without the basics to survive or your claim has been stalled or you are sick of being under surveillance or any of the other issues that you feel the government has failed to address. Like Bill 171 and restricting access to justice for accident victims. But be heard, don’t let the industry and the IBC drown out your concerns and tell them that you “understand the significance of what has happened with auto insurance in Ontario in the last six months” alright – accident victims’ coverage and access to benefits have been under attack.  http://www.bramptonguardian.com/opinion-story/4431169-letter-insurance-rates-falling/ 

For more information on the current review: http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/en/auto/Pages/ontario-auto-insurance-3-yr-review.aspx

The last Five Year Review was July 14, 2008. A total of 90 submissions were received.   http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/en/auto/5yr-review/Pages/default.aspx

The resulting report led to the 2010 slashes to coverage with MIG. See the Five Year Review of Automobile Insurance March 31 2009  http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/en/auto/5yr-review/Documents/FiveYearReviewReport.pdf