Recycled numbers

Recycled numbers

Re “Time to speak up about car insurance” (Alan Shanoff, Jan. 12): It must be because current insurer profitability is so healthy that Ralph Palumbo from the Insurance Bureau of Canada has no choice but to continue recycling numbers that are five and six years old, and compares Ontario’s costs to those provinces with more extensive public funding for rehabilitation (“Injuries drive costs,” Letters, Jan. 19). I suppose that if we are to go into ancient history then I, too, could quote record profitability numbers for insurers from eight years ago. But why do that? I would rather talk about current insurer profitability which sees insurers collectively pocketing almost 60¢ out of every dollar we consumers pay for accident benefits. These numbers are published by the independent General Insurance Statistical Agency. Palumbo refers to insurer examiners as “attending to the interests of the injured before all else” while painting claimants and the healthcare providers who treat them as abusers.Treating providers are also regulated health professionals whose professional colleges can impose sanctions on them, too. I wonder how many sanctions have been applied to insurance assessors for poor performance compared to the clients’ own treating providers?

Laurie Davis
Executive Director, Ontario Rehab Alliance
(One type of fraud occurs when criminals rip off car insurers through phony accident and medical claims. Another, equally wrong, occurs when insurers fail to honour valid insurance claims from injured accident victims who bought their insurance policies in good faith)

Source: Letters to the Editor, Jan. 26 First posted: Sunday, January 26, 2014 12:00 AM ESThttp://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/24/letters-to--the-editor-jan-26