I realize it's frowned upon to actually raise issues on babble during an election campaign, rather than just following opinion polls and making predictions about seats under the FPTP system, but, like Ellen Roseman of the [url=http://www.moneyville.ca/article/1064536--roseman-car-insurance-should-b... Star[/url], I wonder why no one has made an issue of car insurance in this election campaign.
McGuinty’s car insurance reforms, which took effect a year ago, slashed benefits to accident victims in the hopes of stabilizing car insurance rates.The benefits for serious, but not catastrophic, injuries were cut to $50,000 (from $100,000). Assessment costs were included as part of the benefits, cutting the amount for treating serious injuries to less than $50,000.
[b]Car insurance companies in Ontario will save more than $1 billion a year in payouts to victims. And they can now deny funding for medical services without getting a second opinion....[/b]
Ontario motorists may not realize they’re getting less value for their money. If they did, they’d be buying extra coverage to replace what they lost. Only 1.3 per cent of policyholders have opted to pay extra to get more than $50,000 in medical and rehabilitation benefits....
Most people are sticking with the standard coverage, which will force them to pay huge out-of-pocket costs if they’re injured in an accident.
[b]Hudak and Horwath talk about removing the HST from home heating or gasoline. But that’s insignificant, compared to the impact of car insurance on a typical household’s budget.[/b]
Costs are creeping up again since the insurance reforms took effect. Auto insurance rates in Ontario increased 6.4 per cent in the second quarter of this year, compared to the same period a year ago, according to Kanetix, an online insurance quote website....
But shouldn’t rates have stayed the same or dropped after Ontario made such big concessions to car insurers?
The issue popped up this week in Brampton, which has lots of commuters paying higher than average premiums. [b]Horwath called for more transparency in setting car insurance rates. Hudak promised to target criminals who stage phony car accidents....[/b]
What other issues have been forgotten in this election?