Alberta's "meat chart" for care-first insurance puts a price tag on injuries when harmed by an at-fault driver in a car crash. The chart released earlier this month announced, starting January 2027, Albertans will have an — almost— non-negotiable set compensation amount for injuries, disregarding their specific circumstances. Care-first, the incoming regulated automobile insurance model, pays no heed to individual needs. This is echoed by Ricky Bagga, Managing Partner at Crash Lawyers, a personal injury firm. Bagga says, to determine the amount of compensation needed for individuals, "One of the current things that we look at when determining settlements is what the age of the person is.".Under Care-first, "all of the determining factors [for compensation] get thrown into the garbage, and there's just a meat chart and exact dollar figure that you get awarded for particular injuries, which is absolutely ridiculous."Some of the figures associated with the government's proposed "meat chart" with regards to life-altering injuries include one-time payments where a loss of pregnancy (under 20 weeks) is $13,234, and a loss of pregnancy over 20 weeks is $18,906."A 22-year-old woman who's healthy and fit with no external problems, if she loses a pregnancy, that's probably an easier pill to stomach," stated Bagga. "And for example, the 41-year-old woman who's been trying for the last 20 years to get pregnant but was unable to and then just luckily, at the age of 41, magically gets pregnant, and then a driver hits this person so badly that it causes a loss of her pregnancy."."That's going to impact that person far more, because now that woman's chance of ever having kids is almost down the drain — and there's no way of ever being able to fulfill that desire for that person.""There's no one-size-fits-all — that characterization doesn't work," Bagga said.Another injury listed on the chart — a loss of one eye worth $56,717."If you're 92 years old, and you lose one eye — maybe you already have cataracts, or other issues," Bagga stated. ."It's going to affect that 92-year-old far less than the 16-year-old, boy who just gets his driver's license, gets hit by a bad driver, and then he loses an eye, and he has, in a perfect world, a bunch of years before he hits 85 or 90 and he passes away.""That's a long life to go without one eyeball," stated Bagga. According to the government, the only way to litigate under the care-first system is if the at-fault driver is convicted of a serious injury.
