[ATF]

Originally Posted by PGH

So I noticed a trend here; a lot of observations that people are making which aren't explaining to them why they pay so much for insurance. Correlation is not causation, so stop connecting dots which really don't exist. One of the biggest reason your insurance is going up on auto is the cost of litigation has sky-rocketed for insurers who need to recover costs. Ever since the Sparrowhawk case, everyone is now claiming chronic pain, TMD, or other highly subjective medical conditions to escape the capped minor injury regulation - mostly on the advice of their lawyers. The minor injury cap is supposed to control legals costs of minor injuries - like whiplash - from getting out of hand. It may seem like insurers have deep-pockets to the public, but that's not how the business model works (its also the most regulated industry in Canada). Anyone here who runs a business knows that you have to recover costs somehow or else go bankrupt. For most businesses, the method of recovery takes place in the pricing of the product.

Although fatalities have declined in recent years, accidents have gone up, especially in Edmonton and northern Alberta. These accidents put pressure on our medical, legal and law enforcement systems which all require resources to operate. Insurance premiums have only one place to go when more accidents occur. I doubt we will see any premium declines (on average) in the next few years because our population growth is the highest in Canada. More people usually mean more collisions, but also increases the growing fraud and theft issues which don't help reduce premiums either.

And no, government run insurance is not going to solve this...

And yet they still make more than 10% per year in profit which amounts to billions.

http://www.ibc.ca/en/Need_More_Info/...h_Section1.pdf