What Ontario drivers should do: A lawyer’s take

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There are more than nine million licensed drivers in Ontario and as of September 1, their insurance could change.

Patrick Brown, former president of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association and a partner with law firm McLeish Orlando, says that consumers need to be aware of what their benefits will be like. He says drivers need to pay special attention to medical rehabilitation, attendant care and housekeeping benefits.

Pat Brown: Most, I’d say almost all, pretty much all of consumers have very little idea of what in fact benefits or entitlements they have through their auto insurance policies. It’s such a complicated system that it’s very difficult for any of them – a person on the street – to really understand what’s going to be made available to them if they’re hurt. When September 1 comes around and they’re being approached to renew their policies and their faced with a basic policy that essentially has got more than half the benefits reduced, they’re going to have a very limited understanding of what in fact they have and what they don’t have and what they can buy up and how that might impact on them. Certainly you would think that if the new basic policy is being sold to a consumer after September 1 and we see that now they’re getting half their medical rehabilitation benefits, they’ll get half their attendant care benefits, they no longer see any housekeeping benefits, you would think that if they choose not to buy up, that they will get a substantial reduction in premium. I mean, I think that was the government’s intent: we’ll give them choice and through the process of choosing, you’ll be able to reduce the amount of your annual premium paid. But, we’ll see whether or not that happens after September 1. You’d think that would be the case. I think we’re somewhat skeptical  as to whether or not the consumer’s actually going to get the benefit. It’s simply because – for the most part – a lot of them don’t even understand what they have now.

Patrick says that consumers need to be prepared to ask and respond to specific questions before they purchase a policy, or renew one.

Pat Brown: What’s really going to happen, if you’re a consumer and you’re listening to this, after September 1, you’re going to be contacted by your broker or by an adjuster and they’re going to give you your options of renewing your car insurance package and they’re going to ask you questions about what type of package you want. I think it’s extremely important that the consumer ask the tough questions to their insurance company to find out precisely what they’re buying in relation to what they had before. For instance, if I’m talking to my insurance company, they’re going to contact me. They’re going to say “Pat, you’re up for renewal. We have a whole new system in place. There’s a new basic policy and that’s going to cost you ‘x’ amount. You’re going to have a few options. You can buy some more insurance if you’d like.” For the consumer to completely understand what’s going on, they’re going to have to ask some very specific questions.

For instance, they could say, they should ask their insurance company “I understand the new basic policy, my medical, my rehabilitation benefits are now being reduced from $100,000 to $50,000 and in some cases even down to $3,500. Can you tell me how much I’m saving on my premium as a result of those reductions?”

Then you ask the second question: “If I want to keep the benefits I had before September 1, does my premium stay the same?” If it doesn’t, you have to ask “Why not?”

Then you ask the next question: “I understand my housekeeping benefits, my caregiver benefits are now being eliminated under his new basic policy. As a result of that, how much am I saving on the premium?” And then secondly, “If I want to keep my benefits that I had before, does my premium stay the same?”

Same question with attendant care benefits: “I understand they’re being reduced in most cases by half, from $72,000 to $36,000. How much am I saving? If I want to keep that benefit that I had before, does it stay the same?”

At the end of the whole process, write down each amount that you’re going to save or whether or not there is any saving. If, at the end of the day, you want to keep the same amount of benefits that you had before September 1, then you want to see what your premium’s changed. If your premium has gone up, you can ask why. Right? I’m buying the exact same amount of benefits I had before September 1, now I’ve asked for you to give me the same amount as afterwards, how come my premium’s gone up so much?