Proposed auto insurance benefit cuts hurt those most in need

The consequences of proposed cuts to auto insurance benefits – specifically targeting the catastrophically injured – are likely to fall on the Ontario Health Insurance Plan and other social services agencies. This means taxpayers will ultimately pay for the reduced benefits, Toronto critical injury lawyer John McLeish says in Law Times.

The new proposal combines attendant care and rehabilitation for those who are catastrophically injured to a single benefit with a limit of $1 million – down from the current $2-million limit, says the article.

For those who are not catastrophically injured, the government is looking to combine medical and rehabilitation benefits with attendant care services as a single benefit with a limit of $65,000. The time frame for which non-catastrophically injured individuals can claim benefits will also be cut in half — five years instead of the current 10.

‘More restrictive’

Law Times reports the government is also promising to amend the definition of catastrophic impairment so it’s “in line with updated medical information and knowledge, a plan viewed ominously by many plaintiff side lawyers who expect the new definition to be more restrictive.”

In the article, McLeish, partner with McLeish Orlando LLP, says the proposals are disappointing.

“As someone who has spent most of my professional life representing injured individuals, I think it is a very mean-spirited piece of legislation,” McLeish tells Law Times. “These are drastic reductions in benefits to the people who need them most.”

Catastrophically injured individuals are going to get a settlement that will fall far short of their needs, McLeish tells the legal publication.

“They will not get the rehabilitation they need. Their suffering will be made worse. The profits of insurance companies will go up,” says McLeish. “The Liberals should give serious consideration to rethinking what they are proposing.”