We recently posted about the push by insurance companies to eradicate common law damages CTP claims for motor vehicle accidents in Queensland. We made the point that, besides stripping away the rights of injured Queenslanders, there was no justification for such a move other than to increase the profits of these insurers.
This is confirmed by the latest statistics published by the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC), the Government body that administers the CTP compensation scheme. In its latest “CTP Scheme Snapshot Report” published this month, MAIC states that “Overall the Queensland CTP scheme remains sound, fair and affordable”. It even notes that claim numbers are trending downwards, especially in small claims.
It’s been said that if you’re an insurer, ideally what you’d like to do is charge premiums without the inconvenience of having to pay out on claims. The behaviour of some of our CTP insurers in attempting to further limit what is already a heavily regulated scheme certainly seems to reflect this attitude.
But as far as the CTP compensation scheme is concerned, another saying seems most appropriate which is: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
