Missouri Could Save $103 Million in Medicaid Costs with Stronger Seat Belt Law, New Study Documents Savings

3/1/2004

From: John Ulczycki, 630-775-2160, or Don Morrison, 636-949-8685, both for the National Safety Council

ITASCA, Ill., March 1 -- As the Missouri legislature is poised this session to vote on bills to upgrade the state's current mandatory seat belt law from secondary enforcement to primary or "standard" enforcement, a new study by the National Safety Council documents the amount of money the state will save in Medicaid costs with passage of a primary belt law for the state.

Commissioned by the National Safety Council and conducted by Preusser Research Group, In. of Trumbull, Ct., the study, "Impact of a Primary Seat Belt Law on Missouri's State Medicaid Expenses", found that Missouri could expect to save at least $103 million dollars over the next 10 years on its annual budget in medical costs alone by implementing a primary safety belt law in 2004. The study is available at the National Safety Council Web site at http://www.nsc.org/public/impactseatbeltonmomedicaid.pdf.

Primary seat belt laws enable law enforcement officers to ticket motorists based solely on an observed seat belt violation, just as they do any other motor vehicle law such as a broken tail light. Primary laws cover 60 percent of the U.S. population and are in place in 20 states. Twenty-nine states have weaker secondary seat belt use laws that require officers to stop a vehicle for another violation before ticketing vehicle occupants for failure to wear their seat belt.

The study analyzed Missouri's 2001 Hospital Discharge Data looking only at cases where the primary external cause of injury was a motor vehicle crash. Researchers looked at these costs for three population groups: those currently on Medicaid, those who sustained spinal cord injuries and those who sustained traumatic brain injuries. The later two categories are often associated with motor vehicle crashes and have high on-going costs often billed to the state's Medicaid program.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, safety belts can reduce the risk of death for front seat occupants of passenger cars by 45 percent and decrease the risk of serious injury for front seat occupants of passenger cars by 50 percent. Researchers based their estimates of state funded health care costs on an 11 percent increase in Missouri's seat belt use, the average for states that pass primary seat belt use laws.

"The report shows clearly that Missouri can expect to save at least $103 million in state funded medical costs as well as other associated costs by implementation of a primary law," says researcher David F. Preusser, PhD.

Charles A. Hurley, vice president of the National Safety Council's Transportation Safety Group, says the experience of other states shows that passage of primary seat belt use laws have been instrumental in other states in getting higher risk drivers, like teens and young adults, to buckle up. "Fatality rates for young drivers -- including those well into their 20's -- are twice those of older drivers. There's no question that more young drivers and passengers buckled up with a primary belt law, and increased seat belt use will save the state not only Medicaid dollars but more importantly, young lives."

In 2002, 305 young people between 14 and 24 years of age were killed in cars and trucks in Missouri. Eighty-two percent (249) of these young people were not wearing seat belts. If these people young people had been belted, some 125 would be with their families today.

On average, inpatient hospital care costs for an unbelted crash victim are 50 percent higher than those for a crash victim who was wearing a seat belt. Society picks up 85 percent of those costs, not the crash victim.

Regarding the views of some legislators that primary seat belt laws represent government intrusion, Hurley says, "Some people choose to see a primary seat belt law as the difference between enough government and too much government. We respectfully submit that this yardstick be applied elsewhere -- not a to such a critical public health issue."

The National Safety Council, http://www.nsc.org, is a nonprofit, nongovernmental, international public service organization dedicated to protecting life and promoting health. Members of NSC include more than 45,000 businesses, labor organizations, schools, public agencies, private groups and individuals. Founded in 1913, and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1953, the primary focus of the NSC is preventing injuries that occur in workplaces, homes, communities and motor vehicles.