The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) will be launching its enhanced care auto insurance program, the so-called ‘no-fault insurance’, from May 01.
Under the new insurance program, drivers can save as much as $400 a year, ICBC said, as the program looks to address the issue of costly litigation.
“A big part of the savings in the new system is the fact that we won’t be spending hundreds of millions of dollars on litigation,” said ICBC president and CEO Nicholas Jimenez.
The injured party in an accident also loses their right to file a lawsuit for damages and loss of wages under the new no-fault system. At the same time, the liable party can get the same coverage and benefits as the other.
Several industry experts are not too keen on the new program.
“The whole point of insurance is the many providing for the few,” Stratford Underwriting president and CEO Colin Brown told CTV News. “The few being those that need the money - and they’ve taken that aspect of it away.”
Brown, who helped BC establish the ICBC in 1971, commented that while he is not a fan of no-fault insurance, there is little choice in the matter.
“It is a lot easier since they’re a monopoly,” he said. “They have control over the so-called ‘basic’ and if they say this is all now in basic, then so it is.”
But ICBC remains confident that its new program will benefit all.
“It’s not just a good thing, it’s a great thing,” said Jimenez. “I think people are going to know when they go to renew their insurance and they see that it’s going to cost less.”
