Are fears of Alberta auto ‘meat chart’ overblown?

Following emerging details in Alberta’s draft regulations for Care First, the province’s proposed no-fault insurance system, a consumer advocacy group fired a well-publicized salvo last week, accusing the province of setting fixed dollar amounts to compensate accident victims for a range of injuries.

Insurance Bureau of Canada, which represents auto insurers across the country, says the group’s public post is missing some critical context.

In a website posting, consumer advocacy group Fair Alberta says draft regulations for the no-fault program contain what’s commonly called a ‘meat chart’ that assigns percentages to a wide range of bodily injuries (percentages for each injury begin on page 91 of the document linked here). And a second provincial benefits draft document assigns a maximum benefit of $298,520 for catastrophic injuries, while benefits for non-catastrophic injuries range from $944 to a maximum $189,055.  

“Under the proposed rules, Albertans permanently injured in a collision would receive a pre-set payout based on the government’s chart, rather than having their individual losses assessed by a court,” says Fair Alberta, which accused the province of quietly releasing the documents prior to Thanksgiving weekend. “Injury victim advocates at the Alberta Civil Trial Lawyers Association say the draft regulations are alarming and offensive to Albertans,” the post says.

Fair, which is lobbying against no-fault insurance in Alberta, is made up of consumers, doctors, and lawyers, according to the group’s website. It claims to be “powered by the Alberta Civil Trial Lawyers Association (ACTLA).”

When asked how the injury compensation totals used in Fair Alberta’s web were calculted, a response from New West Public Affairs, which supports ACTLA on media relations, tells Canadian Underwriter the dollar figures were derived using the Government of Alberta’s draft Permanent Impairment Regulation, and its Care First Intentions Paper “which establishes a base compensation amount of $189,055 for non-catastrophic injuries.” They note, for example, the table assigns 7% for a pregnancy loss under 20 weeks, and 22% for certain partial amputations. From that, they provided two calculations, 7% of $189,055 equalling $13,234 for a pregnancy loss under 20 weeks, and 22% of $189,055 equalling $41,592 for a partial hand amputation.

The documents posted by Alberta’s government are clearly marked: “[D]raft regulation for informational purposes only. This draft regulation is not law, and the content of this draft regulation is subject to change.”

CU has approached the Alberta government for comment, but has thus far not heard back.

Beyond lump-sum benefits

Aspects of Fair’s criticism may be misleading, suggests Aaron Sutherland, vice president of IBC’s Pacific and Western region.

In an interview with CU, Sutherland addresses one of Fair Alberta’s examples of a journeyman tradesperson who loses part of a hand in a collision. Fair says the tradesperson would receive a lump sum payment of only $41,592. Sutherland says it’s a good approximation of the amount that would be paid for the hand, but that’s only part of the story.

“They are pointing to the permanent impairment regulation and saying, ‘If you have this injury, you get this and nothing more.’ [And it’s true] that’s what you get for your permanent impairment,” he tells CU. “But they’re ignoring the fact that…you will continue to get your wage benefits for as long as those are needed.

“If you’re not able to work for the rest of your life, you will continue to receive that income replacement, and similarly with the care making sure you had maximum medical recovery.”

He adds a person suffering multiple accident injuries would have percentages for each injury totalled to determine their lump sum payment. “Typically, if you’ve got one, you’ve got others, and so it can add up to substantially more than what they’re talking about,” he says.

Related: What consumers want from Alberta’s Care First model — and why the industry thinks they won’t get it

Further, Sutherland says, current plans for Care First’s wage loss and impairment benefits would make them among the most generous in Canada. “The money to pay for that [is] going to come from the legal costs in the system today,” he says.

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“As opposed to a one-time settlement where you get $1 million to account for all [injuries], and up to 40% of that would disappear in legal fees, [all of the benefits] accrue to the person who’s been injured, versus the system today.”

Of course, the devil remains in the details and Sutherland acknowledges Care First is a work in progress. So far, he says the initial tranche of regulations he’s seen appear effective in terms of consumer premium pricing and cost control.

Related: How Alberta brokers, insurers feel about ‘Care First’ model 

“I think that’s a positive for consumers, because it really shows the government is making efforts to take out the legal costs, and drive those into expanded benefits,” he says.

“We’re still very much waiting for benefit, treatment [and] care regulations, and those are the pieces that are going to give detailed information regarding treatment pathways; and what those look like for individuals [to] make sure that they’re getting what they need to recover.”

Phil Porado

Phil, an award-winning journalist with over 30 years of experience in financial topics, has been managing editor of Canadian Underwriter for more than three years.