Friday Focus: Filling the Pockets of the Insurance Lobby

Recently the UCP announced Alberta is headed for regime change in the insurance industry. No, not immediate regime change that would bring insurance costs down. Instead, insurance companies will get to charge higher premiums of up to 7.5% more for each of the two years the UCP expects it will take to set up a new system. 

The new system will be less generous to Albertans injured in traffic accidents. Victims will get no monetary compensation for their pain and suffering in two years’ time, supposedly in return for reduced insurance costs. The new system will be privately-run.

As usual, time will tell. But what the UCP is intent on doing is making sure insurance companies’ profits are enhanced. On the backs of accident victims, no less. 

The insurance companies claim that costs have risen because of lawyers’ fees. But insurance companies don’t pay victims’ lawyers. They pay their own lawyers–often in-house lawyers, whose salaries they control or can negotiate. 

Everyone would like insurance premiums to go down, but it's wrong to reduce premiums by reducing accident victims’ compensation. Money can’t return the health they’ve lost in an accident, but it can provide some solace to those who are injured through the fault of others.

The UCP’s move to no fault will cost many of us dearly for two years, and there’s no guarantee there will be any cost savings for insurance after the new system comes into effect, given the profit motive of private insurance companies. Cutting off victims’ insurance benefits will be incentivized. Certainly, the new system will not result in fewer accidents. 

Alberta’s government needs to examine what measures need to be taken to incentivize good driving habits and improve safety on our roads through an objective study, not one based on the insurance companies’ lobby.