Insurer RACQ has shed light on why it’s important Queenslanders understand their comprehensive third-party (CTP) insurance scheme and what the organisation is doing to start the conversation on reform.
Paul Turner, RACQ’s chief communication officer, said that despite being the one bill that can “literally change your life,” CTP is a topic Queenslanders find boring to discuss. He also noted that Queenslanders don’t “resent” its payment every year like they do other “grudge bill payments” because CTP doesn’t come up as a standalone cost and is wrapped up in their annual rego bill.
“CTP is the one bill that can change your life, literally,” Turner said. “If you are in a crash and you are covered by CTP, you will have every medical bill associated with that crash paid for the rest of your life… The flipside in Queensland is that not every motorist, not every driver, is covered. We have an ‘at fault’ scheme here. This means you, and your lawyers more often than not, must prove you were not at fault, and someone else was.”
This means that if a motorist swerves to miss a kangaroo on the road, seriously injuring himself and the passengers, the passengers will all be covered because they can sue the driver and his CTP insurer. However, the motorist will be “thrown to the wolves of uncovered medical care without insurance” because he can’t sue the ‘roo, Turner explained.
“Thousands of Queenslanders have fallen victim to this problem, finding out way too late they were not covered. Most did not understand what CTP covered,” Turner said. “That is why RACQ has funded the ReThink CTP campaign. RACQ has a view, no doubt. As Queensland’s peak motoring group, and one of the State’s four CTP insurers, we believe the current scheme does not work on a number of levels and needs reform.”
The new RACQ initiative includes Queensland’s first public citizens’ jury – a group of some 50 randomly selected Queenslanders who will hear from witnesses, industry experts, stakeholders, and the broader community – to consider how the motor injury insurance scheme should be improved.
ReThink CTP is run by an independent organisation and will involve the voices of every major participant, including lawyers, doctors, allied health, road users, the state government, and Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC), which administers the scheme.
“At the very least, we hope Queenslanders will learn more about why they pay $355 a year towards CTP and what they get, and that maybe it is something worth a bit of discussion before we turn back to sport and reality TV,” Turner said.
