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Showing posts with label canadian insurance news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label canadian insurance news. Show all posts
Sunday, June 5, 2016
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Sunday, June 14, 2015
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Ontario auto insurance - what are we buying into? FAIR submission
Hello
FAIR was not chosen, nor were any of our members who also applied for an appearance, to speak to auto accident victim issues and the deep cuts to coverage at the Standing Committee on General Government in respect to Bill 91.
Below and attached is our submission to the Standing Committee fyi. As consumers who forced to buy a product that does more harm than good for half of Ontario's MVA victims already and whose coverage is about to be slashed in half, there ought to be a public outcry. So if you paid your premium last week, by the time Bill 91 passes, you will have $1 million less coverage if you are catastrophically injured. No rebate, no notice in the mail, it's just done. You'll find out when you get in an auto accident or on your next premium renewal in the small print. It doesn't just affect you, it affects that person you might accidentally hit with your car, and now that person will also have only $1 million for med/rehab and only 5 years to collect it (as opposed to $2 million and 10 yrs right now). As if people who are so traumatically injured, perhaps in a wheelchair, or seriously brain injured are magically better in just 60 months. It takes longer than that for many victims to just get to court to even hold their insurer accountable.
We pay insurance in that off-chance that we get in an accident so we, and those we injure, have coverage and so we won't be dependent on our families and loved ones or a burden on society. But the reality is that over the past 25 years our coverage is now only a fraction of what it was when Ontario entered into the No-Fault insurance system in 1990. We have no meaningful way to hold this industry accountable except in individual circumstances and at great personal expense. It's an industry that now poses a direct threat to our economy when it is the taxpayer who is paying a premium for benefits that are increasingly difficult to get when you need them and when you factor in the download to the tax payer through the use of our public systems.
Something that seems to get lost in all of the rhetoric and in the complexity of the Insurance Act with all of the changes and stripping of benefits is this: there isn't much difference between the person that is 52% whole body impairment (serious injury) or the person who is 55% or catastrophically injured. But there's a big difference in the amount of coverage available. A $935,000.00 difference. Certainly an amount insurers will fight hard to hold onto. It is these thresholds like the MIG cap at $3500 (80% of claims) vs serious injury vs catastrophic injury categories that is feeding the adversarial system and leaving victims high and dry.
These specialized treatments that we talk about, and the timing that is so very important to recovery, aren't available in our public systems and are outside our public coverage with OHIP. Only a few will be able to afford what is necessary for a best recovery scenario. The rest will pay out of pocket if they can. Most will go without. Many will not recover without assistance. Will it be you? Will it be you that will end up on welfare or ODSP or CPP Disability? Or the people you accidentally injured? How would it feel to know the treatment to make you better is there but you can't afford it? This is already happening to half of all auto accident victims.
"We take you now to a dark land where fraud is rife, corruption abounds and the government seems powerless. No, not some calcified dictatorship in Africa or South America. This is Ontario, home to Canada’s worst auto insurance system, a vast subculture of lawyers, health-care operators, inept regulators and gaming politicians who cannot or will not come to grips with a regulatory failure that costs motorists billions." Terence Corcoran http://business.
When we talk about fraud (a great distraction away from the poor coverage and access) we need to talk about the fact that Ontario's insurers are selling us a product that only works for half of those who pay and we need to look at the fraud in the system that allows that to happen. http://www.
Sent to our MPPS and media.
Rhona DesRoches
FAIR, Board Chair
Tammy Kirkwood
FAIR, Vice Chair
www.fairassociation.ca
May 25, 2015
Why is our Government allowing Ontario’s wealthy insurers to slash benefits to the most injured of auto accident victims?
The 2015 budget is an absolute windfall for Ontario’s insurers who are the beneficiaries of Building Ontario Up by building up their already substantial profits on the backs of Ontario’s seriously injured auto accident victims.
Consumers and accident victims alike are already being short-changed when the coverage they purchased isn’t there when they need it. According to the Auditor General’s 2011 report on auto insurance about half of all claims end up in court trying to get what they paid for and that isn’t any more acceptable than purchasing a car and finding out that the brakes only work half the time.
Ontario’s wealthy insurance companies have had an "easy ride for over 20 years" according to the recent Schulich School of Business report on Ontario’s insurance industry. Insurers have overcharged Ontario drivers by billions and are making 17% on their investments while claimants, who have paid in good faith, are left hanging out to dry at a time when they need assistance.
How can it be that our government, under the guise of protecting victims, is proposing to cut over a $1 million dollars in coverage for the most seriously injured among us? How is that fiscally responsible?
Victims don’t just disappear when insurers fail to live up to the promise of coverage; they just end up on our public support systems at the tax-payers’ expense.
The Budget does nothing to ensure that insurer claims management practices are fair and there has been no action on FAIR’s concerns about the biased and corrupt insurer medical examination (IME) reports that are disqualifying innocent and legitimate accident victims every day. The auto insurance landscape should be cleaned up but instead we see Ontario’s auto insurers being rewarded handsomely for disqualifying as many claims as they manage to handle through the biased medical opinions that have poisoned our insurance system, our courts, and are causing such hardship for legitimate claimants.
We can only speculate why our government is under such significant pressure to support the abuses and dysfunction in our insurance system. The new LAT system and increasing the $30,000 deductible requires that our MPPs ignore the Charter rights of all accident victims to access to our courts. We would like to know why our elected officials are willing to create a third class citizen by making our courts unaffordable and inaccessible. It is no small thing to denigrate the most vulnerable members of our society so an elite industry can profit.
We have no doubt that the new Tribunal hearings system will benefit Ontario’s insurers who are still doing nothing about their excessive claims turn down rate because our Government isn’t even asking that the insurers be accountable for their shoddy claims handling practices. This inaction on the insurance file has led to the unprecedented volume of cases in our civil court system. The new LAT system will be faster but it will still punish victims and be based on Ontario’s insurers’ dependence on their deceptive and dishonest medical reports.
Ontario insurance is an adversarial delay and deny business model and profits depend on the turn down of claims. But who is paying for that? Well, first the victims who endure the endless bogus medical examinations required by our insurers in order for them to deny to access benefits. There are now so many thresholds and quantifiers of injury because insurers and the IBC work very hard to keep injured Ontarians at the lowest level of coverage. It’s a simple plan because the more levels of coverage there are; the more opportunity there is for an insurer to deny the claim.
According to HCAI data insurers have consistently spent more on medical assessments than they do on treatment. There’s a reason for this and it has nothing to do with returning their customers to wellness; it has to do with ‘shopping’ for medical opinions until the insurer gets what they want, an excuse to turn down the claim. All of these coverage issues are ultimately worked out in our courts at a cost to the taxpayer. This costs Ontario’s insurers nothing and the biggest price is paid by the victims who are more likely than not going to have to pay for their own recovery while caught in the system. This isn’t coverage; it’s a false impression of comfort that just isn’t there. It’s now a fantasy of coverage our government is forcing us to buy.
Even small changes such as the “require goods and services not explicitly listed in the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS) to be “essential” and agreed on by the insurer” will become a point of contention and lead to even more cases in our courts if these changes pass into law.
Many of our members are already on public supports. There were over 42,000 Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) applications last year and too many of them are auto accident claimants who are forced to wait many years for their benefits and who are already going without the treatment they need for recovery.
There are 61,063 auto insurance cases on the docket in Ontario courts, there are over 25,000 claims at the Financial Services Commission DRS unit, and many of our members are already on ODSP and CPP disability so Ontario’s insurers are well on the road to paying less than their fair share of MVA expenses and we already have a distorted form of public auto insurance.
Why is the Ontario government willing to allow insurers to shave more than a million dollars of coverage from our policies and willing to punish victims in a way we haven’t seen before? There are about 600 or so catastrophically injured MVA victims every year and so this will be an immediate saving of $600 million in just the first year alone. Victims will be downloaded to the public systems that are not set up to service their disabilities and unlike the fantasy world of protecting claimants in Building Ontario Up, victims will be sacrificed to build up insurer profits. These seriously injured individuals will face a lifetime of increased physical, emotional and financial challenges if Bill 91 is passed as is.
We are very concerned about the changes to the Catastrophic Impairment designation. The direction and the insurer presence on the CAT Panel haven’t inspired confidence that the industry will do the right thing here. At one point only 75% of that Panel agreed that paraplegia or quadriplegia was a catastrophic injury. Now the potential that the industry will separate mental and physical injuries as if they were unrelated is another danger for injured victims and this too will lead to increased court challenges.
Why is our government indexing the court deductible of $30,000 for tort claims but not considering indexing the inadequate $400/wk income replacement for victims that has also stayed the same for well over a decade now? Here is a clear demonstration of the imbalance in how our government views auto insurance when the insurer’s income from the deductible (and it is the insurer who gets to hang on to that $30,000) is indexed to inflation and yet MVA victims are expected to survive on an amount that is lower than our minimum wage and far below the poverty line.
It is an illusion to say that we are ensuring affordable insurance by allowing insurers to pay injured victims less and simultaneously be downloading the cost of victims to the taxpayers who are also the same drivers looking for a break on insurance premiums.
The system is broken and no matter how much our government is willing to give to insurers and take away from the injured, it will still be broken and dysfunctional. We are asking you to put a moratorium on these changes until further review can be done to ensure that Ontario’s auto insurance is providing the coverage we need. We need to look at changing the system, making it more reliable for victims and easier to navigate. These are procedural changes that insurers must make and it is up to government to ensure that they do so.
Thank you for the opportunity to present our point of view. We think it is important that you hear from victims and hope that next time the Standing Committee will invite actual victims to these hearings on issues that affect them rather than just listening to Ontario’s insurers.
FAIR Association of Victims for Accident Insurance Reform is a grass roots not-for-profit that advocates for Ontario’s auto accident victims.
‘FAIR – supporting auto accident victims through advocacy and education’
FAIR Association of Victims for Accident Insurance Reform
579A Lakeshore Rd. E., PO Box 39522, Mississauga, ON, L5G 4S6 mailto:fairautoinsurance@
http://www.fairassociation.ca/
FAIR was not chosen, nor were any of our members who also applied for an appearance, to speak to auto accident victim issues and the deep cuts to coverage at the Standing Committee on General Government in respect to Bill 91.
Below and attached is our submission to the Standing Committee fyi. As consumers who forced to buy a product that does more harm than good for half of Ontario's MVA victims already and whose coverage is about to be slashed in half, there ought to be a public outcry. So if you paid your premium last week, by the time Bill 91 passes, you will have $1 million less coverage if you are catastrophically injured. No rebate, no notice in the mail, it's just done. You'll find out when you get in an auto accident or on your next premium renewal in the small print. It doesn't just affect you, it affects that person you might accidentally hit with your car, and now that person will also have only $1 million for med/rehab and only 5 years to collect it (as opposed to $2 million and 10 yrs right now). As if people who are so traumatically injured, perhaps in a wheelchair, or seriously brain injured are magically better in just 60 months. It takes longer than that for many victims to just get to court to even hold their insurer accountable.
We pay insurance in that off-chance that we get in an accident so we, and those we injure, have coverage and so we won't be dependent on our families and loved ones or a burden on society. But the reality is that over the past 25 years our coverage is now only a fraction of what it was when Ontario entered into the No-Fault insurance system in 1990. We have no meaningful way to hold this industry accountable except in individual circumstances and at great personal expense. It's an industry that now poses a direct threat to our economy when it is the taxpayer who is paying a premium for benefits that are increasingly difficult to get when you need them and when you factor in the download to the tax payer through the use of our public systems.
Something that seems to get lost in all of the rhetoric and in the complexity of the Insurance Act with all of the changes and stripping of benefits is this: there isn't much difference between the person that is 52% whole body impairment (serious injury) or the person who is 55% or catastrophically injured. But there's a big difference in the amount of coverage available. A $935,000.00 difference. Certainly an amount insurers will fight hard to hold onto. It is these thresholds like the MIG cap at $3500 (80% of claims) vs serious injury vs catastrophic injury categories that is feeding the adversarial system and leaving victims high and dry.
These specialized treatments that we talk about, and the timing that is so very important to recovery, aren't available in our public systems and are outside our public coverage with OHIP. Only a few will be able to afford what is necessary for a best recovery scenario. The rest will pay out of pocket if they can. Most will go without. Many will not recover without assistance. Will it be you? Will it be you that will end up on welfare or ODSP or CPP Disability? Or the people you accidentally injured? How would it feel to know the treatment to make you better is there but you can't afford it? This is already happening to half of all auto accident victims.
"We take you now to a dark land where fraud is rife, corruption abounds and the government seems powerless. No, not some calcified dictatorship in Africa or South America. This is Ontario, home to Canada’s worst auto insurance system, a vast subculture of lawyers, health-care operators, inept regulators and gaming politicians who cannot or will not come to grips with a regulatory failure that costs motorists billions." Terence Corcoran http://business.
When we talk about fraud (a great distraction away from the poor coverage and access) we need to talk about the fact that Ontario's insurers are selling us a product that only works for half of those who pay and we need to look at the fraud in the system that allows that to happen. http://www.
Sent to our MPPS and media.
Rhona DesRoches
FAIR, Board Chair
Tammy Kirkwood
FAIR, Vice Chair
www.fairassociation.ca
May 25, 2015
Why is our Government allowing Ontario’s wealthy insurers to slash benefits to the most injured of auto accident victims?
The 2015 budget is an absolute windfall for Ontario’s insurers who are the beneficiaries of Building Ontario Up by building up their already substantial profits on the backs of Ontario’s seriously injured auto accident victims.
Consumers and accident victims alike are already being short-changed when the coverage they purchased isn’t there when they need it. According to the Auditor General’s 2011 report on auto insurance about half of all claims end up in court trying to get what they paid for and that isn’t any more acceptable than purchasing a car and finding out that the brakes only work half the time.
Ontario’s wealthy insurance companies have had an "easy ride for over 20 years" according to the recent Schulich School of Business report on Ontario’s insurance industry. Insurers have overcharged Ontario drivers by billions and are making 17% on their investments while claimants, who have paid in good faith, are left hanging out to dry at a time when they need assistance.
How can it be that our government, under the guise of protecting victims, is proposing to cut over a $1 million dollars in coverage for the most seriously injured among us? How is that fiscally responsible?
Victims don’t just disappear when insurers fail to live up to the promise of coverage; they just end up on our public support systems at the tax-payers’ expense.
The Budget does nothing to ensure that insurer claims management practices are fair and there has been no action on FAIR’s concerns about the biased and corrupt insurer medical examination (IME) reports that are disqualifying innocent and legitimate accident victims every day. The auto insurance landscape should be cleaned up but instead we see Ontario’s auto insurers being rewarded handsomely for disqualifying as many claims as they manage to handle through the biased medical opinions that have poisoned our insurance system, our courts, and are causing such hardship for legitimate claimants.
We can only speculate why our government is under such significant pressure to support the abuses and dysfunction in our insurance system. The new LAT system and increasing the $30,000 deductible requires that our MPPs ignore the Charter rights of all accident victims to access to our courts. We would like to know why our elected officials are willing to create a third class citizen by making our courts unaffordable and inaccessible. It is no small thing to denigrate the most vulnerable members of our society so an elite industry can profit.
We have no doubt that the new Tribunal hearings system will benefit Ontario’s insurers who are still doing nothing about their excessive claims turn down rate because our Government isn’t even asking that the insurers be accountable for their shoddy claims handling practices. This inaction on the insurance file has led to the unprecedented volume of cases in our civil court system. The new LAT system will be faster but it will still punish victims and be based on Ontario’s insurers’ dependence on their deceptive and dishonest medical reports.
Ontario insurance is an adversarial delay and deny business model and profits depend on the turn down of claims. But who is paying for that? Well, first the victims who endure the endless bogus medical examinations required by our insurers in order for them to deny to access benefits. There are now so many thresholds and quantifiers of injury because insurers and the IBC work very hard to keep injured Ontarians at the lowest level of coverage. It’s a simple plan because the more levels of coverage there are; the more opportunity there is for an insurer to deny the claim.
According to HCAI data insurers have consistently spent more on medical assessments than they do on treatment. There’s a reason for this and it has nothing to do with returning their customers to wellness; it has to do with ‘shopping’ for medical opinions until the insurer gets what they want, an excuse to turn down the claim. All of these coverage issues are ultimately worked out in our courts at a cost to the taxpayer. This costs Ontario’s insurers nothing and the biggest price is paid by the victims who are more likely than not going to have to pay for their own recovery while caught in the system. This isn’t coverage; it’s a false impression of comfort that just isn’t there. It’s now a fantasy of coverage our government is forcing us to buy.
Even small changes such as the “require goods and services not explicitly listed in the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS) to be “essential” and agreed on by the insurer” will become a point of contention and lead to even more cases in our courts if these changes pass into law.
Many of our members are already on public supports. There were over 42,000 Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) applications last year and too many of them are auto accident claimants who are forced to wait many years for their benefits and who are already going without the treatment they need for recovery.
There are 61,063 auto insurance cases on the docket in Ontario courts, there are over 25,000 claims at the Financial Services Commission DRS unit, and many of our members are already on ODSP and CPP disability so Ontario’s insurers are well on the road to paying less than their fair share of MVA expenses and we already have a distorted form of public auto insurance.
Why is the Ontario government willing to allow insurers to shave more than a million dollars of coverage from our policies and willing to punish victims in a way we haven’t seen before? There are about 600 or so catastrophically injured MVA victims every year and so this will be an immediate saving of $600 million in just the first year alone. Victims will be downloaded to the public systems that are not set up to service their disabilities and unlike the fantasy world of protecting claimants in Building Ontario Up, victims will be sacrificed to build up insurer profits. These seriously injured individuals will face a lifetime of increased physical, emotional and financial challenges if Bill 91 is passed as is.
We are very concerned about the changes to the Catastrophic Impairment designation. The direction and the insurer presence on the CAT Panel haven’t inspired confidence that the industry will do the right thing here. At one point only 75% of that Panel agreed that paraplegia or quadriplegia was a catastrophic injury. Now the potential that the industry will separate mental and physical injuries as if they were unrelated is another danger for injured victims and this too will lead to increased court challenges.
Why is our government indexing the court deductible of $30,000 for tort claims but not considering indexing the inadequate $400/wk income replacement for victims that has also stayed the same for well over a decade now? Here is a clear demonstration of the imbalance in how our government views auto insurance when the insurer’s income from the deductible (and it is the insurer who gets to hang on to that $30,000) is indexed to inflation and yet MVA victims are expected to survive on an amount that is lower than our minimum wage and far below the poverty line.
It is an illusion to say that we are ensuring affordable insurance by allowing insurers to pay injured victims less and simultaneously be downloading the cost of victims to the taxpayers who are also the same drivers looking for a break on insurance premiums.
The system is broken and no matter how much our government is willing to give to insurers and take away from the injured, it will still be broken and dysfunctional. We are asking you to put a moratorium on these changes until further review can be done to ensure that Ontario’s auto insurance is providing the coverage we need. We need to look at changing the system, making it more reliable for victims and easier to navigate. These are procedural changes that insurers must make and it is up to government to ensure that they do so.
Thank you for the opportunity to present our point of view. We think it is important that you hear from victims and hope that next time the Standing Committee will invite actual victims to these hearings on issues that affect them rather than just listening to Ontario’s insurers.
FAIR Association of Victims for Accident Insurance Reform is a grass roots not-for-profit that advocates for Ontario’s auto accident victims.
‘FAIR – supporting auto accident victims through advocacy and education’
FAIR Association of Victims for Accident Insurance Reform
579A Lakeshore Rd. E., PO Box 39522, Mississauga, ON, L5G 4S6 mailto:fairautoinsurance@
http://www.fairassociation.ca/
Ontario Health Coalition calls on government to 'stop the cuts'
Members of the Ontario Health Coalition and their supporters
staged a peaceful demonstration outside of Liberal Cabinet Minister
Ted McMeekin’s Waterdown constituency office on May 22 as part of
the group’s escalating campaign against hospital cuts.
More/ source:
http://www.flamboroughreview.com/news-story/5640483-ontario-health-coalition-calls-on-government-to-stop-the-cuts-/
More/ source:
http://www.flamboroughreview.com/news-story/5640483-ontario-health-coalition-calls-on-government-to-stop-the-cuts-/
For - Profit rehab clinics driving up insurance costs
Ontarians deserve an auto insurance system that is simple,
efficient and affordable. As with any product, the price of the auto
insurance is set at a level that covers the cost of delivering it.
The largest contributor to the cost of auto insurance premiums - by
far - is claims payments.
More/ source:
http://www.pressreader.com/canada/north-bay-nugget/20150520/281651073692411/TextView
More/ source:
http://www.pressreader.com/canada/north-bay-nugget/20150520/281651073692411/TextView
Why Ontario’s auto insurance system is a car wreck
We take you now to a dark land where fraud is rife, corruption
abounds and the government seems powerless. No, not some calcified
dictatorship in Africa or South America. This is Ontario, home to
Canada’s worst auto insurance system, a vast subculture of lawyers,
health-care operators, inept regulators and gaming politicians who
cannot or will not come to grips with a regulatory failure that costs
motorists billions.
Ontario’s Budget Announcement on Auto Insurance: An Avalanche of Attrition Continuing to Crush Victims’ Rights
According to Ontario’s Liberal government, the 2015
Budget is about “enhancing the quality of life of
people” and striving to “build a fair
society, with strong health care” and “support
people with disabilities”. Ironically, the proposed
amendments to the Insurance Act regulations will
likely defeat this very purpose by draining our health care system,
denying needed treatment to those who need it most and lining the
insurance industry’s pockets further.
More/ source:
http://otlablog.com/ontario-budget-part-2/
More/ source:
http://otlablog.com/ontario-budget-part-2/
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Stop Reducing Ontario Accident Benefits - Petition
If you or a loved one is injured in a car accident you are entitled to certain benefits which you will rely on for your recovery. These Accident Benefits are paid by you and regulated by the Ontario Government.
In 2010 the Ontario Government permitted insurance companies to dramatically cut these benefits for all accident victims. Now there are more proposed reductions which will severely cut benefits for the most vulnerable victims of car crashes. This will hurt victims' chances to recover from accidents and load additional costs to our already overly burdened health care system.
Finance Minister Charles Sousa recently announced the following proposed changes to the standard benefit level:
-$1 million coverage for medical and rehabilitation benefits and $1 million for attendant care benefits for catastrophically impaired persons to be reduced to half and combined
-Non-catastrophic benefits to be reduced from $86,000 to $65,000
-Medical and rehabilitation benefits for non-catastrophically injured persons will be available for only 5 years instead of 10
-Non-earner benefits (available for students or recent graduates) limited to two years
These proposed changes are unethical, especially considering Ontarians overpaid $840 million in 2013 and $3-4 billion from 2001-2013.
And unless we speak up, changes to our Accident Benefits could continue to take hits. It takes a lot to recover from a serious injury and many will be impaired for the entirety of their lives.
Please sign this petition, pass along, and contact your local MPP.
Petition/ source: https://www.change.org/p/ontario-mpps-finance-minister-charles-sousa-stop-reducing-ontario-accident-benefits
Adding insult to workplace injury
Injured workers: It’s the kind of story journalists hear about a lot and
sometimes dread, because if you look into one case, you’ll hear from 10
more people in the same or more serious situations. Did I say 10? It’s
sometimes 20. And the sheer number means not only is there something
clearly wrong, but that it’s systemic.
http://www.capebretonpost.com/
http://www.capebretonpost.com/
Don’t be fooled by the Insurance Bureau of Canada
Cambridge Times
CAMBRIDGE- What is wrong with the Ontario
government? They are yet again further reducing auto insurance coverage
without requiring any premium reductions.
This is the worst of both worlds, and it
comes after a year of record profits for insurance companies and a study
which concluded that motorists overpaid for auto insurance by $840
million in 2013 alone.
When I wrote a letter to the Times
(“Insurance companies reaping profits”, April 28), exposing insurance
company largesse, it was responded to within 24 hours by the head of the
Insurance Bureau of Canada, Ralph Palumbo.
His quick response demonstrates how well organized the insurance lobby is in this province.
Mr. Palumbo doesn’t want you to think about the profits insurance companies are making.
So instead, he talks about the need for “transparency and fairness”.
But even there he is on shaky ground. He
will not disclose how much insurance companies pay him to lobby on their
behalf.
We do know that the Insurance Bureau of
Canada has a lobbying budget of $32 million per year, and that money
comes out of your pocket.
This is your money being used to persuade
the government to reduce the assistance you get if you are in an
accident.............
More/ source: http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/opinion-story/5612022-don-t-be-fooled-by-the-insurance-bureau-of-canada/
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Personal Injury Law: Insurance changes a catastrophic ambush
As part of the provincial budget announced on April 23, the Ontario
government has decided to first throw seriously injured accident victims
off the bus and then deprive them of the ability to make a good
recovery. The announcement comes as a total blindside to interested
stakeholders.
Historically,
whenever the Ontario government was considering major changes to
automobile insurance legislation, there was widespread consultation with
stakeholders. That consultation process consistently revealed it was
common ground among all stakeholders that it was sacrosanct to reduce
the benefits available to the most seriously injured persons. As a
result, prior changes focused on changes other than reductions in the
benefits available to the catastrophically impaired.
The government’s announcement includes five major changes. Each change reduces the funding available to accident victims. Each change reduces the chance for an accident victim to regain their independence. Each change results in further pressure on the currently underresourced public health care system.
Source/ more: http://www.lawtimesnews.com/201505044652/commentary/insurance-changes-a-catastrophic-ambush
Historically,
whenever the Ontario government was considering major changes to
automobile insurance legislation, there was widespread consultation with
stakeholders. That consultation process consistently revealed it was
common ground among all stakeholders that it was sacrosanct to reduce
the benefits available to the most seriously injured persons. As a
result, prior changes focused on changes other than reductions in the
benefits available to the catastrophically impaired.The government’s announcement includes five major changes. Each change reduces the funding available to accident victims. Each change reduces the chance for an accident victim to regain their independence. Each change results in further pressure on the currently underresourced public health care system.
Source/ more: http://www.lawtimesnews.com/201505044652/commentary/insurance-changes-a-catastrophic-ambush
Ontario may need to spend more to fix faulty social assistance program
TORONTO -- Ontario's minister of community and social services
can't say whether the government will have to shell out more money to
fix a support payment system that has already cost the province an
additional $29 million.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ontario-may-need-to-spend-more-to-fix-faulty-social-assistance-program-1.2353911
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ontario-may-need-to-spend-more-to-fix-faulty-social-assistance-program-1.2353911
J.D. Power Reports: Auto Insurers Continue to Miss the Mark to Improve the Customer Experience in Canada
While auto insurers have been able to improve customer
satisfaction with price, they continue to miss the mark in
interactions around claims and other service experiences, resulting
in a decline in overall satisfaction for a third consecutive year,
according to the J.D. Power 2015 Canadian Auto Insurance Satisfaction
StudySM released today.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Income Security Operations proceeding in your absence
According to recent emails from Income Security Operations
(General Division)
Social Security Tribunal of Canada:
"Can you please send the Tribunal your updated mailing address? We have attempted to mail you documents but they have been returned to our office as moved."
A previous email from them:
"Please include your full name (or full name of represented party) and appeal number (see Tribunal Number) on any future correspondence with the Tribunal. It is your responsibility to inform the Tribunal of any change in your contact information without delay. Failure to do so may have a detrimental impact on the appeal, as the Tribunal may be unable to reach you or send you any correspondence. Furthermore, the Tribunal may proceed in your absence. Please retain a copy of any information you send to the Tribunal."
Is this how they are going to get rid of the 14500+ appeal backlog by "proceeding in your absence"?
Anyone who has an appeal at the Income Security Operations (General Division) Social Security Tribunal of Canada might want to think about getting in touch with them to verify their address.
Surviving a Collision
http://survivingacollision.blogspot.ca/
Social Security Tribunal of Canada:
"Can you please send the Tribunal your updated mailing address? We have attempted to mail you documents but they have been returned to our office as moved."
A previous email from them:
"Please include your full name (or full name of represented party) and appeal number (see Tribunal Number) on any future correspondence with the Tribunal. It is your responsibility to inform the Tribunal of any change in your contact information without delay. Failure to do so may have a detrimental impact on the appeal, as the Tribunal may be unable to reach you or send you any correspondence. Furthermore, the Tribunal may proceed in your absence. Please retain a copy of any information you send to the Tribunal."
Is this how they are going to get rid of the 14500+ appeal backlog by "proceeding in your absence"?
Anyone who has an appeal at the Income Security Operations (General Division) Social Security Tribunal of Canada might want to think about getting in touch with them to verify their address.
Surviving a Collision
http://survivingacollision.blogspot.ca/
Auto Insurance: The Hidden Costs of the Provincial Budget
Last month, the Ontario Liberal government revealed its latest budget entitled “Building Ontario Up” but what it does to our auto insurance benefits is actually the opposite by significantly slashing benefits available to accident victims.
http://otlablog.com/hidden-Ontario auto insurance changes slash benefits to seriously injured, critics say
Critics say the Ontario Liberal government's proposed auto insurance
changes mean people suffering debilitating injuries from car accidents
are going to suffer even more.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/
Auto Accident Benefit Cuts: Lobbying Update, Action and Resources - Please circulate!
From the Ontario Rehab Alliance:
Subject: Auto Accident Benefit Cuts: Lobbying Update, Action and Resources - Please circulate!
Importance: High
Dear Members,
The
Budget (Bill 91) has passed second reading. Most likely it will soon be
referred to committee – but the plan is likely to pass it before the
house rises in June. Auto insurance changes are a relatively small
aspect of this broad bill so it remains unlikely that we can effectively
block passage with a majority government in place, though we’ll try our
best. Our focus is very much on influencing the regulations to mitigate
the harm to the seriously and catastrophically injured.
The
ORA Board is currently working with a collection of other associations
on various fronts to these ends, but we also need your help!
https://www.change.org/p/
2. Rally – the rally planned for next Tuesday, May 12 is being rescheduled to better improve the chance of making an impact with a well- organized and well attended event. This has the support and involvement of OTLA, a number of law firms as well as the ORA and FAIR. Likely other associations will get involved as well. We will keep you posted on the date and details but it will most likely take place in the first days of June.
3. MPP & Government Outreach – the ORA and OTLA are jointly organizing a multi-stakeholder strategy session for next week. The goal is to develop common messaging and collectively contact and meet with as many MPPS and decision-makers as possible in the short time available. We have invited representatives of the professional associations, and groups such as OBIA and Spinal Cord Injury.
4. Please continue your own outreach to MPPs –politicians respond to constituents with greater alacrity than they may do to organizations. Thanks to those of you who have and have written to tell us. It would be super helpful if you could please also/instead complete this survey so that we have all the info in one place - https://www.surveymonkey.com/
5. MPP Contact and Issue Info – We’ve revised our home page to reflect the importance of this issue to the public. Follow this link to find the backgrounder we shared with you a week or so ago – the red link at the top takes you to MPP contact info. http://ontariorehaballiance.
6. Key Messages - Auto insurance changes in the 2015 Budget catastrophically injure the injured. Ontarian’s will not be properly protected by insurance if they are injured. The proposed changes help insurers’ profits by shifting responsibility to unpaid family caregivers and the public purse. Our challenged health and social services are unable to absorb this impact.
7. Outline & Analysis of the Proposed Changes - This article provides an excellent summary of the proposed changes and the impact: http://www.lawtimesnews.com/
8. Next Steps
· Once the regulations have been posted we will analyze, consult, comment and refine our messaging
· We will share these insights and messages with you to incorporate into your efforts
· We will continue to keep you posted on the rally and other actions as they evolve
Please distribute this email widely!! All hands are needed on deck!
Laurie Davis, Executive Director
Office: 705 745 1546
Mobile: 705 957 4733
51 Sophia Street, Peterborough
K9H 1C9, ON
Economical Insurance reports Q1 net income of $34.2 million, 2% increase in gross written premiums
Economical
Insurance, a property and casualty insurance company in Waterloo, Ont.,
reported a combined ratio of 105.7% for Q1 2015, compared to the 105.5%
reported in the same quarter a year ago, but also consolidated net
income of $34.2 million for Q1 2015 compared to $1.0 million during the
same period a year ago.
Stop Reducing Ontario Accident Benefits - PETITION
Be aware of the proposed Changes to Accident Benefits which impacts all of us (including our loved ones) when injured in a car crash.
If you or a loved one is injured in a car accident you are entitled to certain benefits which you will rely on for your recovery. These Accident Benefits are paid by you and regulated by the Ontario Government.
In 2010 the Ontario Government permitted insurance companies to dramatically cut these benefits for all accident victims. Now there are more proposed reductions which will severely cut benefits for the most vulnerable victims of car crashes. This will hurt victims' chances to recover from accidents and load additional costs to our already overly burdened health care system.
Finance Minister Charles Sousa recently announced the following proposed changes to the standard benefit level:
-$1 million coverage for medical and rehabilitation benefits and $1 million for attendant care benefits for catastrophically impaired persons to be reduced to half and combined
-Non-catastrophic benefits to be reduced from $86,000 to $65,000
-Medical and rehabilitation benefits for non-catastrophically injured persons will be available for only 5 years instead of 10
-Non-earner benefits (available for students or recent graduates) limited to two years
These proposed changes are unethical, especially considering Ontarians overpaid $840 million in 2013 and $3-4 billion from 2001-2013.
And unless we speak up, changes to our Accident Benefits could continue to take hits. It takes a lot to recover from a serious injury and many will be impaired for the entirety of their lives.
Please sign this petition, pass along, and contact your local MPP.
https://www.change.org/p/ontario-mpps-finance-minister-charles-sousa-stop-reducing-ontario-accident-benefits
The Government Gets it Wrong – Again!
Sorry people of Ontario, but I feel that the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) is an embarrassment. In short, FSCO is a FIASCO.
FIASCO is responsible for regulating and governing our provincial auto insurance product. And what a mess it is. If you read up on articles about auto insurance, benefits and changes, the comments are hilarious. Ontarians seem to have a strong dislike for both FIASCO and Insurance Companies.
http://entwistlepower.com/
FIASCO is responsible for regulating and governing our provincial auto insurance product. And what a mess it is. If you read up on articles about auto insurance, benefits and changes, the comments are hilarious. Ontarians seem to have a strong dislike for both FIASCO and Insurance Companies.
http://entwistlepower.com/
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