CHOICE has signed onto a joint consumer group submission led by Financial Rights Legal Centre responding to Treasury's consultation paper that sought feedback on proposals to improve standardisation across general insurance products.
Consumer groups welcome the Government's exploration of ways to make it easier for consumers to understand and compare general insurance products, like home and motor vehicle insurance. Long PDS documents and confusing exclusions have made it near impossible for consumers to meaningfully engage in the insurance market.
However, this problem will not be fixed by minor changes. A comprehensive process needs to be established to define all key terms and establish a standard cover regime that ensures insurance products actually meet consumer expectations and are genuinely comparable.
The submission recommends the government establishes an independent panel that is informed by consumer testing to help develop commonly understood standard definitions and insurance coverage. Establishing standard definitions of a few key natural hazard risks exclusions will not solve this problem if insurers continue to write complex exclusions into their contracts.
Download submission (PDF)
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