Bill 171 Fighting Fraud and Reducing Automobile Insurance Rates Act

Subject: Bill 171 Fighting Fraud and Reducing Automobile Insurance Rates Act

To: Kathleen Wynne <kwynne.mpp@liberal.ola.org>, Charles Sousa <csousa.mpp@liberal.ola.org>, Andrea Horwath <ahorwath-co@ndp.on.ca>, "jsingh-qp@ndp.on.ca"

Open Letter:

I sent an email to several Politicians after the announcement of the proposed 15% insurance rate drop stating that I felt it was a waste of time because even if it came to fruition, the Insurance Companies would get their money somewhere else. Since then it is becoming quite obvious that the Insurance Companies are laughing all the way to the bank. The proof of this is in Bill 171 “Fighting Fraud and Reducing Automobile Insurance Rates Act” and the recent changes by the Liberal Party to basically overturn a court ruling that allowed family members to be paid for looking after seriously injured accident victims (without any consultation). Add the changes made in 2010 and in my opinion the Liberal Party has turned a blind eye to some of the most vulnerable people in this Province. I mentioned in my email that I believed both Ms. Wynne and Ms. Horwath are people of integrity, but now I'm not so sure.
The Insurance Companies are using the smoke screen of "fraud" to further attack seriously injured victims, and all the Parties are playing right along. I realize there is fraud in the system, but it is getting blown "way" out of proportion. Accident victims are being labelled a fraud until proven innocent and with Bill 171, they will have fewer resources to fight this injustice. Insurance Companies have used the same angle with the Conservative Party after they brought about Bill 59 (which the insurance companies lobbied for) called “The Ontario Auto Insurance Rate Stability Act”. Both of these acts sound nice and fuzzy, but neither is nor will be of any benefit to the accident victim. They were designed to increase profits for the Insurance Companies under the cloud of a lie.
Somehow the biggest fraud never gets “seriously” put on the table and that would be the for-hire Independent Medical Examination (IME) Doctors. They treat accident victims with contempt or worse and deny or delay legitimate claims and benefits. Some Lawyers refer to them as “A Necessary Evil”.  I don’t understand why the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association (OTLA) doesn’t form a class action lawsuit against the Insurance Companies, Rogue Doctors, and anyone else responsible for the way accident victims are being treated. I’m sure many “good” Doctors and Health Professionals would also agree. Along with the above mistreatment, victims are being followed, photographed, and videotaped at home, in public, during therapy, and in hospital hallways after surgeries. Does this sound like a system that is trying to help people recover? In my opinion, this is a Human Rights abuse story.
Politicians, Health Professionals,and the OTLA should also be doing more to prevent new bills from becoming retroactive. Many cases are dragged out for more than 10 years and with all these changes, it’s like trying to build a case on sand.
If our leaders really want to save money, allot of pain, and get rid of the log jam of wrongfully denied claims, they should shine a light on the IME process and then kick all those “Non-Hippocratic Oath” doctor butts to the curb. It seems almost everyone in this system is making money off the backs of accident victims.
I watched some of the Ontario Legislator Session from Monday March 17. They were talking about bill 171 to an almost empty room. Most of what was being discussed was of minor importance; it was basically regurgitating the "fraud" story or “Honourable” Members trying to score points with the Insurance Companies. Mr. Jeff Yurek began an hour long speech by stating he is supporting the bill and then went on to talk about all that was wrong with it. I would suggest to Mr. Yurek that if this bill has allot of problems, he should “not” be supporting it. I do give him credit for at least mentioning the IME problem, “…We also want to establish a true, independent, peer-reviewed, medical assessment system. We want standardized assessment procedures that require multiple assessments being performed by medical professionals...”.  The word “true” stuck out to me. A good starting point would be to put a cap on the amount of times victims can be sent to IMEs. The Insurance Companies send them at will (whenever it benefits them) and many times it’s hundreds of miles away adding more expense and stress on the victims and their families.
From what I saw, the only people in the above session that came across as caring and knowledgeable about what is happening to accident victims were Mr. Jagmeet Singh and Ms. Catherine Fife and for that I would like to thank them. I wish they were in my riding.
I would like to finish with a quote from Ms. Fife on that day in the Legislator:
“…None of these changes has anything to do with fighting fraud. Everybody agrees that fraud is an issue, but these proposals in this legislation do not address the issue of fraud. But it does have everything to do with making it easier for insurance companies to wrongfully deny benefits, delay settlements and make it harder for you to collect what you are rightfully owed...”.


I CC this email to a few Journalists/Programs that I respect in the hope that they will further look into what is really going on in Ontario after a person(s) becomes injured in a car accident, especially seriously injured people.

Thank you for your time,
X

Source: http://www.fairassociation.ca/