Letters to the Editor (October 01, 2003)

Dear Editor,

Attached is a copy of a letter I sent to Rob Sampson MPP… To date there has been no response. When is the industry going to publicly explain their situation and counter all the bad press being given?

If we wait too long we will allow the public to think that insurance companies have been making nothing but money and rate rollbacks are justified. If that happens anything the industry comes out with will lack credibility.

Dear Mr. Sampson,

I read your article yesterday in the Toronto Sun. I am curious however that when an insurance company generates sufficient investment income to offset losses that this is acceptable, yet you stated they must absorb losses.

Other industries when faced with losses are allowed to increase the price of their product but you feel that the insurance industry should not have that privilege. In what other private industry is this done?

Also when it comes to health care costs, the industry has gone from $300 million a year to $1.5 billion since 1996 by adhering to the current legislation, yet you want the health care industry to determine what’s appropriate.

Could you please tell me how an industry that is not doing all that well is supposed to chop rates when benefits will not be reduced in any way and when the cost of repairing vehicles keep escalating.

On the idea of good drivers benefiting and bad drivers paying, that is a wonderful concept but if the costs for bad drivers become too high they simply drive without insurance and the pool to which we all contribute to cover each other’s losses shrinks and then we have another shortfall.

Rates since 1996 have declined dramatically. In the past few years the rates have gone up and we are back to 1995 rate levels. The problem is we balance to last year’s premium and if it had gone down and down for years we just expect it to stay there so when rates increase we find it outrageous. Can you tell me another industry that everyone uses that continually dropped prices and have now gotten back to 1995 pricing? Find a way to reduce costs!

Phone your car dealership and ask him what it would cost to buy your vehicle part by part! The insurance companies on newer vehicles are subject to these prices daily.

Reduce frivolous lawsuits! Reduce excessive medical expense claims!

Combat the most accepted crime in Canada, INSURANCE FRAUD; most Canadians don’t even consider it a crime. When these are addressed then we should look and see what insurance pricing looks like. Government should not impose a fiscal loss on private industry by rate rollbacks without solving the problems that ail it first.

I’ve attached another article on insurance for you to read as well.

Yours truly,

Rob Warkentin