Changes to South Australia’s compulsory third party insurance scheme (CTP) has been met with support from the Royal Automobile Association of South Australia (RAA).
Penny Gale, RAA general manager of public affairs, says the changes are vital to ensuring anyone involved in a crash is taken care of.
“Most people who are involved in a serious crash have not done anything criminal, yet they pay for their mistake, along with their family, for the rest of their lives,” says Gale.
“We need a scheme that helps people recover as quickly as possible, and our CTP insurance scheme should make that as easy as possible.”
RAA believes the key objectives of an effective CTP scheme include promoting the rehabilitation of people injured in a vehicle crash, encouraging the quickest resolution of claims and containing the cost of insurance at an affordable level.
“Research shows that the current CTP insurance scheme draws out the ‘getting better’ process and slows down people’s recovery rates,” says Gale.
“An effective scheme enables people to get support as soon as possible. The current scheme doesn’t do that.”
Gale says lump sum payments have been proven not to meet the needs of people who are catastrophically injured.
“Under changes to the scheme people will no longer have to worry about meeting their medical or other costs that may come up over the length of a serious injury. They will have peace of mind that all of these costs will be taken care of as long as they need them.
“The focus needs to change from ‘how much money can I get today’, to’ do my family and I have peace of mind over how I will be looked after for the rest of my life’.”
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