Last week,
Insurance Business reported on a rally that was being planned in protest of “shady” industry practices and the liberal government’s call for reduced MVA benefits as part of the provincial budget.
A spokesperson for reports with one of the rally’s organizers, FAIR Association of Victims for Accident Insurance Reform, reports that the event was “a great success with hundreds of people attending, either victims or their supporters.”
New Democratic Party MPP Jagmeet Singh addressed the crowd to lambaste the cuts as well, arguing that they hurt society’s “most vulnerable people.”
“It was a lively and vocal crowd who came out,” FAIR Board Chair Rhona Desroches said. “Many of the participants and certainly the auto accident victims who gave speeches were in various stages of recovery and I'm especially grateful that they came to speak for future victims who won't have the level of coverage that they themselves did post-accident.”
Desroches is referring to a little known provision where MVAs who sustained injuries prior to 2010 coverage reductions receive a greater share of benefits than MVAs injured recently, further exacerbated by the fact that “insurers made some benefits more difficult to access last year, i.e. qualifying for attendant care costs.”
The group hopes that this rally will incite a more vocal public outcry against Ontario’s treatment of MVA victims, who they believe are neglected in favor of insurance companies.
“The message is that MVA victims are not worth their time or the effort of the legislators who continue to assist Ontario's wealthy insurers profit margins rather than ensuring that Ontarians have coverage enough to recover. It's shameful,” Desroches said.
