It's been over two years since Pennsylvania passed a law allowing motorcyclists to ride without helmets. It was a huge mistake. It's time to repeal the law before it becomes too ingrained.

Who pays the medical bills, especially when a motorcyclist suffers a catastrophic brain injury? How does Pennsylvania's law affect our overall medical policy? The fact is that when private insurance runs out -- and that happens quickly in catastrophic brain injury hospitalization and rehabilitation -- Medicaid picks up the tab. That means taxpayers like you and me.

We know that Medicaid is out of control in Pennsylvania -- the budget for 2006 is around $4.4 billion. Part of the reason Medicaid benefits are skyrocketing is that millions of state Medicaid dollars will be used to pay the medical costs of motorcyclists who have suffered catastrophic brain injury while riding without a helmet.

A recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study clearly shows that riding without a helmet costs lives and significantly increases medical costs.

We should learn a lot from that study, which was conducted in Florida, a state that decided to legalize riding without a helmet over three years ago. The study demonstrated that motorcycle fatalities in Florida increased more than 81 percent, and the number of deaths for riders younger than 21 nearly tripled, in the three years after state lawmakers repealed a law requiring riders to wear a helmet.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study also found injuries have become more expensive to treat. The average hospital cost to treat a head injury was $45,602; more than four times the $10,000 insurance non-helmeted riders are required to carry.

In the three years after the repeal, 61 percent of the 933 fatally injured motorcyclists were not wearing a helmet. Of the 101 riders younger than 21, who were killed in those three years, 45 percent were not wearing helmets.

The Brain Injury Association of Pennsylvania believes there is no legitimate reason why Pennsylvania should not require motorcycle helmet use. The current helmet law is costing Pennsylvania plenty -- if helmet use were required by law and enforced, many lives and millions of Medicaid dollars could be saved. Pennsylvania Medicaid dollars should not be spent to subsidize reckless behavior.

STEWART L. COHEN
President
The Brain Injury Association of Pennsylvania
Attorney at Law
Cohen, Placitella & Roth
Philadelphia