Does a medical condition impact your auto insurance rate? [Boss Insurance]

When an insurance company assesses a claim and determines the auto insurance premium, many factors are taken into consideration. The amount of car insurance premium depends on the risk of making a claim. To determine this risk, the insurance company collects information such as the driver’s age, marital status, how much and where the driver drives, his driving record, vehicle details, as well as the type and amount of coverage.

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Can a medical condition affect my insurance premium?

In a word, no. The Ontario auto insurance application does not explicitly ask about medical conditions – it only asks drivers to check a box confirming that they consider themselves “qualified to hold a driver’s license”, with qualifications covering mental and physical fitness.

Beyond that, the driver’s medical health is not a factor that insurance companies take into consideration. Thus, a license suspension due to a medical condition will not have a major impact on the driver’s auto insurance premium.

However, whether a medical condition affects a driver’s ability to obtain or maintain a license is another story.

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What is a medical license suspension?

According to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) website, every driver must meet basic medical standards to operate a vehicle. This is also why passing a vision check is essential when applying for a G1 license.

Drivers can also be tracked for health-related driving fitness long after the licensing process. The MTO requires physicians – including physicians, optometrists and nurses – to submit a health condition report (MCR) if a person has health conditions deemed ‘high-risk’ enough to ‘warrant a suspension permit”. Some of these could include conditions such as dementia, motor or sensory impairment, sudden disability, visual impairment, certain psychiatric disorders, and uncontrolled substance abuse, to name a few.

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According to the report, the ministry and a medical advisory committee determine the driver’s fitness to drive. If the committee has doubts about the ability of the driver, it can suspend the driver’s license.

The MCR program is intended to keep dangerous drivers off the road, but some critics say it goes too far. A thorough investigation by the Toronto Star last year found that an average of 35,000 RCMs were filed each year by doctors (the figure did not include nurses, optometrists and occupational therapists) – and many of these drivers were only notified the day of their suspension.

The survey also found that these conditions ranged from true high-risk cases (such as dementia, epilepsy and stroke) to conditions such as hay fever, colds and “menstruation disorders”.

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In a few cases, drivers whose licenses were suspended were later found on appeal not to have the conditions for which they were suspended at all.

Resumption of license

The process of getting your driver’s license back is known as reinstatement. When the department communicates the medical license suspension to the driver, it may also request more medical information to consider reinstating the license. Once this information is received, the ministry will review the driver’s medical condition to determine next steps.

Some drivers may also be subject to a driving assessment at a local clinic or hospital in order to reinstate their license. Fees for the driving assessment range from $200 to $1,000.

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Would a medical license suspension increase my auto insurance premium?

Again, no. In Ontario, insurance companies cannot increase your premium rates if the suspension did not occur due to a criminal conviction, which includes suspensions for medical reasons. They also cannot increase your rates if the suspension lasted less than a year.

Instances in which a premium will increase include license suspension due to distracted driving, impaired driving, driving without insurance, or if you have unpaid fines and too many demerit points.

And no matter when or why a license suspension was issued, any driver whose license has been reinstated is entitled to basic auto insurance, although some will face higher insurance rates. Either way, it’s important to talk to a broker or compare different insurance quotes to make sure you’re getting the right coverage for you at the best price.

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