It's a good time to do a year end auto insurance check up

December 29, 2022, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

As we bid another year good bye many of us are beginning to gather our year end paperwork, thinking about taxes for the new year and making financial plans and goals for 2023.

A crucial part of planning is being prepared for misfortune. This is a good time to review your auto insurance policies, premiums and coverages. Have a look at the paperwork. Haul our your policy and review it and any changes that have happened in the last year or two. Being adequately insured in the event of an accident is more important than ever. As public purses tighten public coverage of healthcare costs and extended healthcare services lessen.

In the event of even a ‘minor’ accident you may require months of physio, chiropractic treatment canes, crutches and braces. You’ll find that the coverage for such aids is virtually non-existent through OHIP. There are very low compensation limits offered through insurance for anything that is considered to fall into the minor injury group of claims.

In the event of a serious accident or a catastrophic injury the limits are also defined, there are deductibles payable to the insurance company, and frankly the benefits will not last long if you require 24-hour care, or major interventions. The Basic level of auto insurance is not enough if you are hurt in a car accident.

We wrote about this in 2019 and things have not changed. We conducted Auto Insurance surveys in 2018 and 2019 to gauge the level of public knowledge of insurance benefits in Ontario and you can read the surveys online. The conclusions are that most drivers are not aware of how poor the benefits offered are, how inadequate the minimum coverages are, nor how difficult it can be to claim them.

Please have a read here of the latest survey.

The conclusions we made were that:

Our third annual study reports that although 70% of the people surveyed were aware of the option to purchase additional coverages only 8% of people have purchased the additional coverages. At Deutschmann Law we see this as a serious concern.

We deal with people daily who have been injured in car accidents who find that their insurance benefits do not cover their expenses for treatment or recovery from their injuries. They find out too late that barring a very serious injury benefits are capped at $3500 for treatment, rehab, or medical devices.

Almost half of people don’t realize that there is a deductible on pain and suffering awards of $38,818.97. What this translates to is that if you got an award of $40,000.00 you would end up with just over $1000 of it. The rest goes to the insurance companies. Many people are also not aware of the fact that maximum income replacement benefit is only $400 a week, an amount that hasn’t changed in decades. If you are catastrophically injured the maximum coverage that you will get for lifetime care is $1 million which for such terrible injuries will be exhausted in between 10-15 years.

The cost of doubling most of your benefits is approximately $100 for the majority of our respondents who asked for an amount from their insurer. Putting that into perspective, an initial consult at the physiotherapist of chiropractor exceeds that amount.

The most common reasons that people gave for not purchasing the coverage were:

• Don’t need it (37%)
• Too expensive (25%)
• Can’t afford to pay more (10%)

The unfortunate truth is that the basic level of coverage provided by car insurers will not be enough to care for yourself or your family in the event of a car accident. OHIP will not pay for much of the care or medications that you may need. Counselling for PTSD, medications, medical devices and rehabilitation are all paid privately in Ontario. The costs add up very quickly.

If you are in the market for insurance, if you are renewing your insurance or if you aren’t sure whether you have purchased extended insurance then please call your agent, broker or insurance company today and ask for a quote. Consider the amount seriously in light of what the cost of treatment or unemployment are in the event of injury in a car accident.

After you review your policies consider carefully whether you have enough protection to protect your future.

If you’ve been hurt in a car accident, particularly when the fault isn’t your own, you deserve to be cared for and the chance for a full recovery. Call us for a free consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer on your case today.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

It is important that you review your accident benefit file with one of our experienced personal injury / car accident lawyers to ensure that you obtain access to all your benefits which include, but are limited to, things like physiotherapy, income replacement benefits, vocational retraining and home modifications.