The Great Rip Off

[PaulG]

In the words of Johnny Rotten, "Did you ever get the feeling you were being ripped off?"

Ontario  Drivers Fewest Accidents but Highest Premiums

We constantly bitch about our premiums in Ontario.  The government constantly says "Move along, nothing to see here..."  They commission a report and wont even announce it's release because it proves what everyone has suspected all along. Lying Scheming Bunch Of....    This is the primary reason why I can only afford 1 bike and 1 car. Count yourself fortunate if otherwise.

Oh well one more year til the election.

I'll leave it at that before my head explodes.... oh wait.. ..

[red]

PaulG,

So, that comes out to 166 thousand per accident?  In the USA, maybe medical costs could account for much of that.   
Given Canada's free health care, that seems kinda high.  Is everybody there driving a Ferrari or Lambo?   

[jscgdunn]

Red,
We do not have "free health care".  In Canada, income taxes in all provinces are greater than 48 percent, in some over 50 percent, if you earn over 200,000 per year.  Remember this is our dollar is .75 per US$.  Not to mention consumption taxes of over 10% (except Alberta), carbon taxes, and host of other taxes, that depending on where you live, add up to 1000s per year.

In Ontario, where Paul lives, creeping socialism has elected an incompetent, "progressive" government for years.  The only insurance choice is a government owned corporation. 

Ontario, with a population of 13.6 million, has the highest sub-sovereign (is the debt owned by the provincial government) IN THE WORLD!

Paul, my sympathies.

[PaulG]

Yes the health care is not "free", and coverage varies between provinces.  Also as the article stated a lot of the settlement costs are eaten up by lawyers, and physio coverage is not uniform.  The insurance companies have ruled the roost forever, but hopefully now that this is put in the public eye finally, it could be a catalyst for change.  However that would take a new government with some balls to change the rules.   

One clarification is that in Ontario we don't have single provider government insurance. It's called "no-fault" insurance. Basically (if I understand it correctly) : after an accident both insurance companies pay out the damages to their clients. Any further compensation requires you to sue the person/insurance provider. There are many cases where people have to sue their own insurance company to be properly compensated.  These scenarios set up the feeding frenzy among the legal profession, and drag out for years.  If you are successful you can kiss off a good chunk of any settlement to them.

For the average fender-bender this may be ok. But when there is a debilitating or life changing injury you can get f!@#$%d from both ends.

I copied this from an insurance site which elaborates a bit more. They make it sound simple but it's far from it.  They say you don't have to sue the other guy cuz the munificent insurance company will take care of all your needs.  Which is BS.  You can pursue further compensation, but the deck is stacked against you from the start.

Sorry it's a holiday weekend and I'm working all of it and I'm in a bitchy mood.

Ontario has a "no-fault" car insurance system, but this does not mean that no one is at fault in an accident. The term "no-fault" insurance simply means if you are injured or your car is damaged in an accident, then you deal with your own insurance company, regardless of who is at fault. You don't have to go after the at-fault driver for compensation.

Similarly, if any passengers in your car are injured, then each passenger who has a car insurance policy of their own will approach their own insurance company for benefits. If your passengers do not have a car insurance policy of their own, then your insurance company may pay benefits to them. The driver of the other car involved in the accident will claim benefits from his or her own insurance company.

Someone is always deemed to be "at fault" in a car accident, whether partly or fully. The law requires insurance companies to assign the percentage of fault for each of the drivers involved in the accident. This is done by using the "Fault Determination Rules".

These rules, which are set out in a regulation under the Insurance Act, help insurance companies deal with accident claims quickly and economically.

Keep in mind that the Fault Determination Rules differ from any charges laid by the police under the Highway Traffic Act. For example, if you were unable to stop your car on an icy road and rear-ended another car, the police officer may have told you that "no one was at fault".

This usually means that no police charges will be laid. It does not mean that the insurance companies involved will not consider who was at fault. In this case, the insurance company would apply the Fault Determination Rules, which state that a car that rear-ends another car is at fault, since drivers are required to take road conditions into consideration.

Keep in mind that your percentage of fault will determine the amount of deductible you have to pay. Generally, insurance companies will increase your premiums at your next renewal date if you have been deemed to be fully or partially at fault in an accident.

[big r]

Sounds a lot like ICBC here. They will take of you only to screw you over in the end. Keep raising rates and telling us they are going broke. They wont insure anything over 100,000 I think. You can buy basic from them and have to buy from private for everything else. I had collector ins. on my 86 was just over 250 a year. Without the collector status it would have been over 1300 a year.

[Sabre093]

I know this system well....My wife had got rear ended,caused a brain bleed she was off work for a year,she was doing temp work...by the time it was all said and done lawyers and insurance took 42k out of the settlement,and there wasn't much left....Pulled this from a web site

CLAIMS FOR PAIN AND SUFFERING DUE TO A CAR ACCIDENT
WHEN CAN I SUE FOR PAIN AND SUFFERING?

In order to sue for pain and suffering due to a car accident, the no fault insurance legislation in Ontario requires that your injury must cross a "threshold" before you are able to recover compensation.  This threshold is defined in the Insurance Act as requiring your injury to cross a certain level of seriousness.  To meet the threshold your car accident injury must result in a:

Permanent serious impairment of an important physical, mental, or psychological function; or
Permanent serious disfigurement (i.e. scarring).
If you cross this threshold then you will be entitled to recover compensation.  However, your award for pain and suffering will be reduced by a deductible of $30,000.00 unless your injuries award were to exceed $100,000.00.  If your injuries exceed $100,000.00 worth of compensation there is no deductible.

After getting screwed with this we have a rider added for 100 or so extra a year to reduce that deductible to 22k....The insurance companies don't tell you this though..

[gumby302ho]

 I have been saying it for years, Ontario is the corporate whipping boy for north america, we get fucked on everything full stop.

[jscgdunn]

Gumby, you really need to have a regime change;  Ontario is it's own worst enemy; it keeps voting in liberals who continue to move to progressive, socialist, alt-left.

[chiz]

regime change? when you get to my age you realize that the world is run by crooked men and women and nothing will change; maybe to please some yes but not all. A regime change in Ontario would likely change some of the stuff going on now but when the new kids realize they can feather their nests well then same old same old.
    What would like ly happen is what Trump is doing and what Harper did; for sure they would rip up the green belt and probably have one game warden for the entire province crap like that because everyone is greedy and could give a fling f---k about the planet all they care about is their latest bleeding up to date  ff---ing cell phone, and that bloody hockey team in blue.
    Fact is no one even wants to think about because its way too scary but remove half the population from every city and town globally and every Mayor's problems cease to exist and all the important problems of this society disappear.
The people in power do the exact opposite; and that is grow the population because this is what they have always done.
   We have a jacked up housing problem rite ffff----ing now with house prices reaching a joke, at the crux of this problem is guess what ....all of the fff----ing above.
Lez

[PaulG]

Glad you got that off your chest.  Nothing like a good rant to bring down the BP.

[jscgdunn]

Post from the Globe and Mail this AM...not my post but it gives you an idea how "progressive" politicians operate.

Only Kathleen Wynne (the Premier) holds a press conference to promote yet another TAX.

CAP and TRADE = TAX

Green Energy (Global Adjustment Fee) = TAX

Health Care Premium = TAX

Foreign Buyer Real Estate Levy = TAX

Land Transfer fees = TAX

This is in addition to HST and the 50% income tax they steal.

Well Ontario is $330,000,000,000 in debt and climbing fast so even a bogus 'balanced' budget (auditor general says the Liberal's budget will be a deficit of $9 Billion) but when you have such a massive debt, does it even matter at that point? A fake balanced budget is a PR scam, just like Rent Control and new tax is.

Wynne is so dismissive on non public sector workers and those who disagree with her corruption and incompetence, and this arrogance is what has led Ontario to the brink of bankruptcy

[chiz]

Here is the classic Canadian response to all of the above wait for it here it comes wait for it.....Oh well!
  Wait let us all get caught caught up on our stretching and limbering up so we can bend over and grab our ankles we do it soooooo well
Chiz

[simi_ed]

Post from the Globe and Mail this AM...not my post but it gives you an idea how "progressive" politicians operate.

Only Kathleen Wynne (the Premier) holds a press conference to promote yet another TAX.

CAP and TRADE = TAX

Green Energy (Global Adjustment Fee) = TAX

Health Care Premium = TAX

Foreign Buyer Real Estate Levy = TAX

Land Transfer fees = TAX

This is in addition to HST and the 50% income tax they steal.

Well Ontario is $330,000,000,000 in debt and climbing fast so even a bogus 'balanced' budget (auditor general says the Liberal's budget will be a deficit of $9 Billion) but when you have such a massive debt, does it even matter at that point? A fake balanced budget is a PR scam, just like Rent Control and new tax is.

Wynne is so dismissive on non public sector workers and those who disagree with her corruption and incompetence, and this arrogance is what has led Ontario to the brink of bankruptcy

Well, this sounds very simple. They obviously don't have an income problem, they have a spending problem. You folks in Ontario need to elect some folks that understand who is footing the bill, and quit pissing it away like it was 'someone else's money'.
Spoken as an outnumbered underspender, a true minority in Kalifornia!

[jscgdunn]

You nailed it, Ed.

[PaulG]

As long as the urban voters vote for them we are screwed. The red strip along L Ont contains about 80-90% of the population and therefore a majority of ridings.  As long as their lies appease these voters the rest of the province can eat a shit sandwich for all they care.  I live in the middle of that blob. You can stand on the corner and shake people by the collar, but they would just ambol along in a halcyon daze. I have a brother that's one of them.  I think it's the water from the lake.  Maybe the nuke plants nearby....


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