Editorial - Sun News Media
Ontario’s car insurance
system seems to work well except for consumers who need it and accident victims
who make legitimate claims under it.
After all, the insurance
industry is making good money.
Lawyers are amply rewarded
acting for plaintiffs and insurance firms.
Doctors earn significant
sums preparing insurer-requested medical reports.
Treatment providers receive
good compensation for treating the injured.
Premier Kathleen Wynne
received generous financial support from the car insurance industry when she
ran for the Liberal leadership.
The Liberal party receives
significant campaign donations from it.
But here’s the problem. Two
problems, actually.
The first is fraud by people
trying to rip off insurance companies with phony claims. We agree it happens
and it’s a serious problem.
But what we don’t understand
is why the amount of fraud -- to hear it from the insurance companies -- never,
ever, seems to decrease.
Fraud, we’re told, is the
main reason auto insurance premiums in Ontario remain stubbornly high, no
matter how many times the government cuts back benefits to all accident victims
at the behest of the insurance industry, as it did again in its latest budget
passed last week.
We also think there’s
another kind of fraud in the insurance industry that needs to be addressed by
government.
That fraud happens when
people who have faithfully paid their auto insurance premiums year after year
are hurt in serious accidents and, when they make legitimate claims for the
benefits promised in their policies, are denied them...More
