Eby is buying our votes while service drops

Premier David Eby called the former ICBC system a “dumpster fire,” but the system has gone from bad to worse under the NDP government.

Injured motorists and passengers face far worse challenges than before Eby’s “dumpster fire” reforms. This system is an inferno that Eby’s government is hoping we will overlook for a $110 rebate.

If you have been injured in a motor vehicle accident you probably know how the reformed ICBC system fails to deliver on its promises.

Injured motorists, passengers, and pedestrians are forced to pay for their own care at every turn, while the government buys votes instead of health care. Injured motorists are being mistreated, refused care and encouraged to resolve their claims prematurely by ICBC adjusters.

Most injured motorists are forced to navigate this system with no advocates, even when things go really wrong. Adjusters are not advocates, they are paid employees of the corporation and their job is to resolve each claim as time and cost efficiently as possible.

Imagine a motorist, passenger, or pedestrian who has sustained a brain injury or concussion.

Are you surprised to learn that ICBC does not have a policy to deal with this kind of injury? Or offer any support or assistance for folks with brain injuries to help them navigate accessing the care their insurance guarantees them?

In a system where lawyers have been kicked out and many of us don’t have family doctors, where does a person begin?

The system has changed, but not for the better when it comes to accessing care and helping people to recover and return to their lives.

Instead, we are stuck in a system where health-care providers refuse to book appointments without ICBC approval and ICBC refuses to provide approval without treatment plans from the health-care providers.

And we are somehow supposed to facilitate the communication between these systems ourselves without adequate support or information from either side.

This is not better. Eby should stop buying votes with rebates and reallocate this money to providing adequate health care for injured motorists, passengers and pedestrians.

Or consider reallocating the money to health care for all British Columbians, hire more medical staff, help us all get access to family doctors — but don’t try to buy our votes.

Matt Mortenson Sooke