John Stall

Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to plan for the future if we knew when we were going to die?

Not that I really want to know, or hope that it is sooner rather than later, but what an advantage it would be to know exactly how long we have to do the things we want to do and how much money we will need to do them before the sun sets. Which brings me to the new auto insurance reforms set to be announced from Queen’s Park today.

The reforms are essentially designed to give us a say in how much we want to pay for auto insurance by offering a number of policy options that are not now available. The insurance industry has been raising rates because it says the cost of medical and rehabilitation treatment is going up and lots of people are taking full advantage of those treatments including “medical assessments.”

So the province is endorsing a plan that would allow us to buy a basic policy for the price we are paying, which contains a limit of $50,000 worth of medical coverage, or we can choose to pay a higher premium for a policy that carries a higher limit. I don’t know about you, but if I knew I was going to be in an accident that required really serious medical treatment, I would pay more for the coverage. If I knew I was going to walk away from an accident (as I did recently), I would buy the basic coverage and save myself some money because God knows we are going to need every penny to put into a retirement saving plan to see us through the Golden years, which brings it full circle.

 If we knew when we were going to die, we could make really informed decisions about saving and spending. And if we knew how badly we were going to get banged up in a car accident, we could make really informed decisions about buying the cheaper policy or the more expensive one. Good luck with that decision!