[Mrfnews] 08LR08 - MRF Leaders Report - April 2008

[mrfnews at mrf.org]

MRF E-MAIL NEWS Motorcycle Riders Foundation
236 Massachusetts Ave. NE
Suite 510
Washington, DC 20002-4980
202-546-0983 (voice)
202-546-0986 (fax)
http://www.mrf.org (website)


For Immediate Release

Contact: Jeff Hennie, Vice President of Government Relations
Email: jeff at mrf.org

April 17, 2008


The cherry blossoms near the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) office in
Washington aren't the only tell tale signs that riding season is upon us. 
Springtime is also when the media begins to report on motorcycling, and
more often than not they don't report on the vast number of positive
aspects of motorcycling.  Instead they choose to attempt to sour the image
of motorcycling by painting a picture that motorcyclists are a social
burden on the backs of the American taxpayer.

Critics and the uninformed believe that motorcyclists; helmeted or not,
account for a super majority of health care costs from trauma rooms to
long-term care. The problem is that's just not true. Not a lot of study
has been done on the subject, but there is more than enough research out
there to soundly and logically deflate the social burden myth.

The Journal of American Medicine, one of the most respected of all medical
publications, published the findings of a 1988 study on the subject of the
public costs of motorcycle-related injuries at a specific Seattle
hospital. The results clearly showed that, on average for
motorcycle-injured patients, 63.4 percent of their medical bills was paid
out with taxpayer dollars. Admittedly that's an astoundingly high cost,
but what the study goes on to say is that the average public cost of ANY
injury at that same Seattle treatment center was 67 percent, 3.6 percent
higher. A statistical dead heat.

There is also a little more to that story because generally the public
cost of health care is about 45 percent currently, and it was
significantly less than that in the mid eighties when the study was
conducted. The facility used for the study was Harborview, a division of
the University of Washington and one of the largest and most state of the
art facilities in the Seattle region that sees most of the area’s worst
case scenarios routinely.

A similar study done by the University of North Carolina also found that
there was no statistical difference in public cost to treat
motorcycle-related injuries over any other type of injury.  Also important
to keep things in perspective, last year the public share of
motorcycle-related injuries was .001 percent of the entire public health
care cost.

Then why are they making motorcyclists look like leeches on society?
Usually it's an attempt to advance helmet laws or other restrictions on
motorcycling. Those on that mission would be wrong to say that helmeted
riders are much less of a financial burden than unhelmeted riders.
According to a 1996 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
study, the unhelmeted riders generated a cost difference of 8 cents on the
dollar more than helmeted riders, and most of that was paid for by private
insurance.

So what have we learned? That the next time someone argues for the social
burden theory, we can let him or her know that it's pure bunk.


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(c)All Information contained in this release is copyrighted. Reproduction
permitted with attribution. The Motorcycle Riders Foundation, incorporated
in 1987, is a membership-based, national motorcyclists' rights
organization headquartered in Washington, DC. The first motorcyclists'
rights organization to establish a full-time presence in Washington, DC,
the Motorcycle Riders Foundation is the only Washington voice devoted
exclusively to the street rider. The MRF established MRFPAC in the early
1990s to advocate the election of candidates who would champion the cause
of rider safety and rider freedom.

The MRF proudly claims state motorcyclists' rights organizations and the
very founders of the American riders' rights movement among its leading
members. The MRF is involved in federal and state legislation and
regulations, motorcycling safety education, training, and public
awareness. The MRF provides members and state motorcyclists' rights
organizations with direction and information, and sponsors annual regional
and national educational seminars for motorcyclists rights activists, as
well as publishing a bi-monthly newsletter, THE MRF REPORTS.