A government-run insurance company can be started for $2 million

A government-run insurance company can be started for $2 million. There will be no cost to the taxpayers. The system will be funded by drivers.

FACT: The 2004 report of the New Brunswick Select Committee on Public Automobile Insurance recommended that the province adopt a Manitoba-based model of government-run auto insurance. KPMG, the independent actuaries retained to review the suppositions of the Committee, determined that the cost of establishing a public insurance system would outweigh the claimed benefits. At a very minimum, the cost of government-run auto to taxpayers will equal the worth of foregone insurance taxes, which a government has to recoup elsewhere. In NS, the lost taxes would have amounted to at least $29 million in 2004.

In addition, despite paying back start-up loans, every government-run insurer in Canada has required a taxpayer bailout, whether through direct cash injections or through dedicated tax revenues. In early 1976, less than two years after its inception, ICBC required a 25% rate increase and a bailout of $181 million ($641 million in today’s dollars). None of that money was ever paid back.

The elimination of age, gender and marital status as rating factors creates a new type of discrimination against older, safer drivers and subsidizes younger, higher-risk drivers. Further, government-run insurers find other ways to rate according to these risks. ICBC’s RoadStar program is one example of a government insurer implementing age-based rating through the back door. A driver who gets his/her licence at the age of 16 does not qualify for the discount until age 25. Coincidentally, 25 is the age that risk-based raters (private insurers) use to indicate safer drivers. What is more, a driver has to be at least 34 years old to qualify for ICBC’s absolute best rate. ICBC is attempting to have higher-risk drivers pay higher premiums. In recent years, ICBC has also stated that it needs "right pricing" to ensure that customers are paying the premiums required for the risk they represent.