Ontario Proposes Insurance Changes

The Ontario Liberal government has stated that it proposes to make changes to the current insurance regulations. One of the most important changes is the variable levels of medical coverage for non-catastrophic injuries. I believe this is a mistake that will only cause hardship and heartache for many Ontario drivers.

Allowing motorists to choose a lower medical coverage benefit in return for a lower insurance premium would appear to be reasonable on the surface. Let the driver determine what risks they are willing to take and pay for. This won't work. Insurance companies and brokers will not, in my experience, properly advise the driver of the practical impact of the reduced coverage in the case of a car accident. Instead of properly advising drivers on the risks, I expect that many insurers and brokers will simply use lower pricing as the means to gain more insurance contracts and ultimately more profits. It will place low income and economically disadvantaged drivers in a worse position if and when they are injured in a car accident.

How many people actually know what their medical coverage entails? How many broker's will explain it to them? In the absence of this knowledge taking a reduced premium will seem like a good idea - until they run out of medical coverage for injuries they suffer in an accident and cannot afford to get the medical and rehabilitation benefits they so deeply need. This is one more series of changes that are intended to reduce insurer's costs but will be, in my opinion, at the expense of the Ontario drivers and their passengers.

What do you think about this?

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