In Ontario, drivers are called to fight back the recent change in their insurance system which allegedly decreased their accident benefits. This change was apparently approved by the government. Consumer advocates say that this is does not benefit the consumers and in fact is an action to their detriment.
The $100,000 dollars in benefits will only become 35,000 after Sept. 1, 2010 deadline. Before this happened, consumer advocates suggest that they now call their representatives of their insurance companies and make them extend the duration of their policies since it will essentially be beneficial for them both in the short and for the long term.
According to Lee Romanov, one of the said consumer advocates, the approved action by the government removes $72,000 health care benefits that were previously enjoyed by the consumers. He argues that the government only disguised their intent of helping insurance companies when they claimed that this new policy would help consumers save money.
This new policy will help the insurance companies decrease the costs of the damages that they should be covering. This means that the amount that insurance companies will pay each time one of their policyholders find themselves in an accident, they will be liable for less. In essence the amount of money that they need to pay for their policyholders are decreased.
He also said that the mere 1% claimed savings is a mere $26 dollars as compared to the $942 of the previous policy. He said that his policy under the government policy cost him $2,576 but he went online to look for better deals and found a better deal. He said that the deal he struck online cost him $1,634. The policy that he got online was apparently was the same quality as his previous policy.
Here we see that the government is supporting the interests of the insurers rather than the interest of the consumers. This should not be the case according to consumer advocates in which they said that the interests of the people or the general public should be the primary interest of the government rather than the interests of the few. This being the case consumer advocates called Ontario drivers to action.
They called Ontario drivers to renew their previous policies instead of subjecting themselves to this new policy. They said that they should immediately call their representatives and make them renew their policies so that they could still avail of the $100,000 in medical benefits for the 10 more months. This should also bring a message to the government that they do not support these new car insurance policies.
Consumers should be wary of new policies such as these. They need to know and understand these policies and be able to properly determine if these policies will essentially be beneficial to them or will be to their detriment. In order to safeguard their interests, they should continually be informed of what is happening in their government and see how it affects them. This is both their duty and their right as consumers of the products and services of they use.
