What changed
- Subsection 2(1.0.1) of the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule makes the benefits in Parts II, IV, V and VI optional under a policy entered into or renewed on or after 1 July 2026. Part III, medical, rehabilitation and attendant care, is not on that list.
- New subsection 47(2.1) requires the auto insurer to pay a medical or rehabilitation benefit, other than medication, for an accident in Ontario on or after 1 July 2026, even where a supplementary health insurance plan would cover it.
- The two halves run off different dates. The optional benefits turn on the policy date. The payment rule turns on the accident date.
What became optional on 1 July 2026
Subsection 2(1.0.1) of the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, added by O. Reg. 383/24, says the benefits set out in Parts II, IV, V and VI shall be offered as optional benefits under every contract evidenced by a motor vehicle liability policy entered into or renewed on or after 1 July 2026.
Those four Parts are income replacement, non-earner and caregiver benefits; payment of other expenses; death and funeral benefits; and additional optional benefits. Part III, which carries medical, rehabilitation and attendant care benefits, is not among them.
Nothing falls away by itself at renewal. Subsection 2(1.0.2) deems those benefits to continue as optional benefits in the amounts previously payable unless the named insured and the insurer agree, in writing, that the insured declines a benefit or changes the amount payable.
Subsection 2(1.0.4) narrows who they reach. From 1 July 2026 the optional benefits in those four Parts apply only to the named insured, the spouse of the named insured, the dependants of the named insured and of the spouse, and the people the policy specifies as drivers of the insured automobile.
Who pays medical and rehabilitation expenses now?
Subsection 47(2) is the long-standing rule. Payment of a medical, rehabilitation or attendant care benefit is not required for that portion of an expense for which payment is reasonably available to the insured person under any insurance plan or law or under any other plan or law. In practice that put a workplace or private health plan ahead of the auto insurer.
O. Reg. 58/25 added subsection 47(2.1). For an accident that occurs in Ontario on or after 1 July 2026, payment of a medical or rehabilitation benefit is required despite subsection (2) for the portion for which payment is reasonably available under a supplementary health insurance plan.
Medication expenses are carved out by name and stay under subsection (2).
Subsection 47(3) defines a supplementary health insurance plan as a group plan, including one sponsored by an employer or a union as part of an employee benefits program or purchased through a professional association or group, or an individual plan purchased from an agent, broker or company, in each case for medical and rehabilitation coverage.
Which date governs?
Two different ones, and that is the part worth slowing down for. Whether the four Parts are optional turns on the policy: subsection 2(1.0.1) reaches a contract entered into or renewed on or after 1 July 2026.
Whether the auto insurer pays medical and rehabilitation expenses ahead of a supplementary health plan turns on the accident: subsection 47(2.1) reaches an accident that occurs in Ontario on or after 1 July 2026.
So a policy renewed in August 2026 and a collision in May 2026 are answered by different halves of the same reform, and the two dates have to be established separately before either question can be answered.
What the change leaves alone
Attendant care. Subsection 47(2.1) reaches a medical or rehabilitation benefit and stops there, so an attendant care expense still sits under subsection (2).
Collateral sources other than a supplementary health insurance plan. Subsection (2.1) is written against that defined term rather than against every other plan or law, so everything outside the definition continues to be answered by subsection (2).
Part III itself. Medical, rehabilitation and attendant care benefits are not among the Parts that subsection 2(1.0.1) turns into optional benefits, so the coverage that matters most on a serious injury file is not the coverage a policyholder can now decline.
The detail sits on Car accident claims, which is kept current as the rules move.
