Want Cheaper Car Insurance in Ontario? - Look here to be heard!!!

[sixer]

The Ontario Auto system needs to be changed for us to see cheaper rates. Everyone needs to know why were paying so much and it's due to Ontario having the richest Accident Benefits system in North America. No other Province or State has such enormous benefits, these need to be optional and those who want them can pay the extra premium. For the average person, we only need normal coverages.

Go to http://www.insuranceicanafford.ca/site/get-involved and enter your postal code. You'll then see two green boxes, click on each and send the pre-filled letter out to your MPP and the Ontario Finance Minister by filling in your email address and city.

We can make a difference and allow companies to make rates cheaper. Until this change happens, we'll keep paying the most expensive rates in North America.

Here's some great answers to common myths.

Myth
Ontario’s auto insurance accident benefits should be increased not decreased.

Fact
Ontario has the most generous and expensive accident benefits system in
North America.
Ontarians already pay 25% more for their auto insurance than drivers in any
other province.


Myth
OHIP pays for my health care after an accident.

Fact
No, your auto insurance company does.
The province of Ontario collects $142 million a year from auto insurance companies to compensate for the costs to the public health system of treating innocent auto collision victims.
In addition, your auto insurance company directly pays for your subsequent rehabilitation care, like chiropractic and physiotherapy.


Myth
Reducing med/rehab coverage will deny auto accident victims adequate care.

Fact
The majority of auto accident victims suffer soft tissue injuries. In other provinces, $25,000 is more than enough to restore these individuals to health.
For some reason, no-fault injury claims in Ontario cost much more than similar claims in other provinces. For example:
Alberta - $3,000
New Brunswick - $11,700
Ontario - $38,000
In Ontario, seriously injured victims would still have access to $1 million for medical and rehabilitation plus another $1 million for attendant care -- benefits not available in any other province.


Myth
Reducing med/rehab coverage will deny auto accident victims adequate time to heal from their injuries.

Fact
For some reason, no-fault injury claims in Ontario take much longer to resolve than similar claims in other provinces.
For example, in Alberta, 40% of sprain and strain claims are still open after 6 months. In Ontario, that figure doubles to 80%.
Insurers have called for provisions to ensure those who are more seriously injured get the treatment they require.


Myth
Reducing med/rehab coverage to $25,000 will only result in greater revenue for auto insurance companies who are already awash in profits.

Fact
Ontario auto insurance is a money losing business.
In 2008 alone, Ontario auto insurers lost $400 million.


Myth
The cost of health care assessments is not a major drain on the auto insurance system.

Fact
Nearly 40% of no-fault injury claims costs paid by auto insurers goes to health care providers for assessments only, not treatment.


Myth
Insurers have far too much freedom to do what they want with little regard for the public interest.

Fact
Auto insurance in Ontario is one of the most regulated industries in the world.
The government decides what benefits auto insurance policies must provide, how much insurers can charge for auto insurance and even how much of a profit is acceptable.
It’s up to everyone involved in the auto insurance system (including those who provide health care and legal services to claimants) to keep costs as reasonable as possible for the benefit of all Ontarians.

[romsan04]

done and done.

Thank you OP.

[Piro21]

Maybe I've got this wrong, but are you trying to get us to sign a lobby petition by the insurance companies to lower the amount they pay out in accident benefits under the pretense that it will lower our rates?

[Anonymouse]

The insurance industry has historically made hundreds of millions to billions off of us depending on the particular year. They are parasites who should be replaced by a state-run system, which has proven to be cheaper for motorists.

[wallop]

The insurance industry has historically made hundreds of millions to billions off of us depending on the particular year. They are parasites who should be replaced by a state-run system, which has proven to be cheaper for motorists.

+1

mods, please stick this thread to the top

grateful

[liorsyncro]

The insurance industry has historically made hundreds of millions to billions off of us depending on the particular year. They are parasites who should be replaced by a state-run system, which has proven to be cheaper for motorists.

+1. I've always maintained that as far as health care and rehabilitation goes, insurance companies should not be running the show. How can one put a price on a life when the party providing that protection is a for-profit organization who actually has to deny even legitimate claims in order to be profitable? And the alignment of interests is even more distorted when that company has shareholders that it has to answer to, complimented by shoddy corporate bureaucracy. If people believe they will see their insurance premium being rolled back as a result of this campaign, don't kid yourself!

[Piro21]

+1

mods, please stick this thread to the top

grateful

The petition in the OP is to put a cap on the amount insurance companies pay to injured people in accidents. It seems to be nothing but a poorly-masked sales pitch to reduce their liability and increase that of the people they're legally required to insure. They want the laws changed so they don't have to pay you properly for your medical expenses and can just take your money in peace.

[dlander]

Fact:

If you become disabled as the result of an automobile accident, you may be eligible for weekly Income Replacement Benefits of up to $400.



************************

$400/week max for income replacement. Do you really think that the accident benefits are too high??? This is just a lobby petition by the insurance companies to lower the amount they pay out in accident benefits.

[sbobcat]

Jackie Moon said .............SUCK ONE!!!!!!

[sixer]

They want the laws changed so they don't have to pay you properly for your medical expenses and can just take your money in peace.

Then don't complain about insurance being so expensive in Ontario. I don't want to hear one person complaining, because there is No Other Place in North America were you have included such extensive coverage as we have in Ontario and that's why were paying so much. Accident Benefit payouts are the biggest expense for an insurance company.

It's cheaper for someone to die in an accident then for them to survive.

So with people surviving more car accidents because of better cars, Insurance will keep going up in Ontario because we have the Best Coverage in North America for Injuries.

I want the choice to pay for it. I don't buy an extended warranty, rust proofing and such when I buy a new car, I can choose to do so.

If you want to keep paying for the best coverage in north america don't complain.

If you want to have good coverage, and middle of the line as everywhere other province and stat and pay lower premiums then complain as directed in the first post.

It's amusing to hear people complain about this. They want cheap rates but the best coverage. I guess you also want to drive a new BMW but pay the price of a Kia.

Make it optional, let those who want to pay extra do so, the rest of us can pay lower premiums and still have decent coverage like in other premiums.

[krozet]

This is BS! The petition is to cap insurance payouts! Can someone lock this thread?!?! The OP is misleading people!

If you want to have people sign a petition tell them what it is for!

[krozet]

Myth
Reducing med/rehab coverage to $25,000 will only result in greater revenue for auto insurance companies who are already awash in profits.

Fact
Ontario auto insurance is a money losing business.
In 2008 alone, Ontario auto insurers lost $400 million.

How about some proof of this.

[krozet]

Insurance...at a premium
CBC News Online | February 18, 2005

What a difference a couple of years makes. In 2003, consumers vented their anger as the premiums they paid to insure their homes and cars registered double-digit increases for the third year in a row. And that's if no claims had been made on their policies.

The anger peaked in Atlantic Canada, where Bernard Lord came dangerously close to losing the New Brunswick election over the issue. Consumers in that province had seen their rates soar by as much as 70 per cent over the previous year. Rates were going up across the country – but in provinces where government-run companies sold car insurance, the increases were far more moderate.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada cited huge losses – partly because of the fallout from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and partly because the downturn on financial markets took a huge chunk out of their investment income.

And when it came to cars, the IBC argued that the cost of settling claims was rising so quickly that member companies could not make money insuring cars. The organization cited rising medical and legal costs as well as higher repair costs for cars that were getting much more expensive to replace.

The bureau said medical claims were up between 10 and 15 per cent each year since 1998. And many of them are fraudulent.

Lee Romanov – president of the Consumer's Guide to Insurance, a Toronto-based insurance rate comparison service – said fraudulent claims play a major role in inflating rates, forcing insurance companies to hike premiums.

"What seems to be happening is insurance companies are trying to get control over their claims," she said in an interview with CBC News on June 16, 2003.

She said that in some instances insurance companies are refusing to renew policies of customers who file one or more claims. "If you do have a lot of claims…if you use your insurance policy as a maintenance program, your [insurance will be cancelled]."

Several provinces passed legislation aimed at freezing or rolling back auto insurance rates. In Ontario and New Brunswick, limits were put on a car accident victim's right to sue, especially when it came to soft tissue injuries such as whiplash. In Ontario, the government also raised the deductible to $30,000 on damage awards from lawsuits filed over injuries.

Alberta froze rates for 18 months, long enough to get the province through another election.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, the government introduced legislation that was designed to save the average consumer about 15 per cent on their insurance bill. It rolled back the rates insurance companies can charge, including a cut in mandatory third-party liability, by nine per cent. The bill also imposed a $2,500 deductible on personal injury claims.

The legislation prompted the Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company to threaten to stop writing new policies in the province.

"Newfoundland and Labrador consumers deserve rate relief, but that can only be realized if compensation levels – which are set by the government and over which the industry has no control – are reduced appropriately," company CEO George Cooke said.

Despite soaring costs, Canada's insurance companies made money every year between 1993 and 2003. Profits did hit a low point of $340 million in 2002. Those profits, though, were for 206 companies and represented a 1.7 per cent return on equity. Not good if your RRSP includes mutual funds that invest in insurance companies – and you're looking for big returns.

In March 2004, the insurance industry said things were starting to look better. The IBC reported profits of $2.6 billion – its best year ever and almost eight times the profits the bureau's 206 members enjoyed the previous year. "The average company net earning figure was approximately $13 million," the bureau said in a news release.

Rates did drop in much of the country. Ontario claimed that it had achieved its goal of a 10 per cent reduction in auto insurance rates. And the hue and cry over rates began to subside.

By the end of June 2004, New Brunswick had decided against switching to a government-run auto insurance system.



Insurance profits
Those record profits of 2003 were about to be eclipsed. Big-time. Feb. 18, 2005 – the Insurance Bureau of Canada reports that the industry is healthy again. Healthy to the tune of record profits of $4.2 billion.

"These financial results confirm that the property and casualty insurance industry has returned to financial health following a period of the weakest earnings in its history," insurance bureau chief executive Stan Griffin told a news conference.

Griffin noted that the numbers have to be put in context. Between 2000 and 2004, the industry made six cents profit for every dollar of premiums and investment income collected.

"The insurance industry's return on equity for 2004 is strong but insurance is a cyclical business – years of profit are often preceded by years of low returns," Griffin said. "Over the last five-year period, the ROE was 8.6 per cent. Many other sectors of the economy have averaged closer to 20 per cent."

Griffin added that big profits mean that drivers will save about $1.4 billion in premiums in 2005.

The Consumers Association of Canada had a different take on the industry's new-found health.

"Governments have clearly failed to protect consumers and businesses from price gouging by the insurance industry," association president Bruce Cran said. "The insurance industry is now in full damage control in an effort to justify their record-setting profits."

Cran said provincial governments in Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia "aided and abetted these obscene profits," and demanded that they roll back rates and restore "reasonable" benefits.

It's clear that consumers have taken some steps in their attempt to hold down their car insurance costs. Many have increased their deductible, making them responsible for the cost of repairing minor dents and scratches.

In January 2005, CBC-TV's Marketplace reported that more Canadians are deciding to pay repair costs out of their own pockets, rather than go through their insurance company.

"We've seen claims as much as $5,000 to $10,000 [that] people are paying out of their pockets …. They know that [their] insurance will go up," a Toronto auto body shop owner said.

"When we do all the operations that are required to make it a perfect job, [so we can] put our lifetime warranty on it, [the bill] could be as much as $1,000. Just for [a] little ding."

So your trying to tell us that since 2005, a record year for insurance company profits they have fallen on hard time? I feel for them, I really do....

[ssainani]

So your trying to tell us that since 2005, a record year for insurance company profits they have fallen on hard time? I feel for them, I really do....

in their fairness -- insurance companies do need to make a profit ... a very very healthy one

or they won't be around when you need them

AIG for example

[LeetViet]

in their fairness -- insurance companies do need to make a profit ... a very very healthy one

or they won't be around when you need them

AIG for example

AIG did not fail because their insurance was not profitable.