Consider this: You live in a town that’s been dealing for years with an arsonist. Fires are devastating the town, yet officials have neither the know-how nor the interest in catching this arsonist. Each year, the destruction and costs just escalate. It’s the law to have fire insurance. It’s also the law to buy local. The insurance company is run by Town Hall; a huge, lavish building loaded with useless and overpaid officials. There’s an arsonist at large, yet the town blames the fires and crippling costs on those who’ve lost their homes. Each year, every single homeowner is penalized with crippling premium increases. They struggle to make ends meet. The town’s broke, fires keep burning, but town officials are rewarded with massive bonuses.
Your house burns down. You paid mightily to be insured; you expect to be covered. But guess what? Gosh, sorry. The town tells you the loss of your home is a “minor loss,” and maximum compensation is $5500. Can you appeal? Well you can hire an expert to confirm your house burned to the ground, but the town has the final say and it makes the rules.
Exchange town with ICBC, arsonist with careless drivers, officials with ICBC executives, and there you have it. There’s even a connection to fire — ICBC’s “financial dumpster fire,” caused mainly by gross mismanagement and bad drivers who cause accidents. Yet, ICBC is set to penalize every single driver with a proposed 6.3% premium increase, a whopping $60 each. This jolt in premiums comes at the heels of ICBC’s announcement to penalize injured victims with a $5500 cap on “minor” injuries. Minor? Let’s see. Its classification includes such serious conditions as physical or mental injury (including chronic), pain syndrome (also chronic), psychological or psychiatric injury, a concussion (brain injury), TMJ (severe jaw injury) or WAD (severe whiplash). Specialists in each field can dispute ICBC’s findings, but ICBC makes the final decision with its own tribunal of adjusters. These ICBC employees are not medical professionals. How can ICBC get away with this? Well, it has the final say and it makes the rules.
BC drivers are about to pay the highest premiums in the entire country. We deserve to be fairly covered against injury or loss. As long as the true causes of ICBC’s financial dumpster fire are not addressed, it will keep raging out of control. When will it end? The sooner the better to get rid of this broken monopoly.
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