Cheap Health Insurance - More Time-Tested Steps To Massive Savings
Still on the subject of cheap health insurance, we’ll take a look at other ways to massive savings. But as always I must point out that reading through will show you how but only implementing what you’ve read will help you enjoy reasonable savings. Here are some more time-tested ways to pay less…
1. An HMO will get you health insurance at a cheaper rate. They are a more affordable option than traditional. However, joining an HMO means you are restricted to the use of only doctors, other medical professionals and hospitals that are part of the network.
If what you think you compromise in the limited choices an HMO allows is much more than the advantages, you can still go for regular health insurance.
For such folks, cost can be slashed if they shop extensively for the best rates in traditional. This is a guaranteed way to pay more affordable rates while enjoying a regular plan.
But if you are ready to go with the restrictions, then an HMO is a good alternative for slashing your health insurance cost.
2. If you drink then your rates will be more than another profile that doesn’t. Alcoholics pay more for this.
Drinking is the source of many health conditions and that is apart from the fact that it will also increase your risk to health insurance carriers.
How much drinking is safe for you? I can’t really say as there are people who can take a bottle and still maintain their cool while some will take just half a glass and things start going wrong.
But here’s what I’m sure of: Staying away from alcohol totally will do you a world of good. For people who can’t quit totally, try to drink responsibly.
It’s just that for most people drinking responsibly is even more tasking than total abstinence. You can get help if you really want to stop drinking.
3. What you’re ready to contribute to payments for each visit to a doctor has an effect your premium. This amount which you contribute is your co-pay. Raising your co-pay brings down your health insurance rates. You’re especially encouraged to select a high co-pay if you go to the doctor only once in a very long time.
4. You will lower your rates by a huge margin if you spend time on shopping right… And the easiest way to start is to ask trusted acquaintances what their experiences with their insurers are.
Doing this helps you avoid going to just the provider with the biggest hype but to the insurer that gives the best price/value. A friend will quickly warn you if they got low quality service from an insurer.
The probability that you’ll settle for the wrong insurer reduces if you get personal experiences from people you can trust.
5. If you participate in high risk or extreme sports you’ll attract expensive rates. Therefore stop any sport or leisure activity that is either life-threatening or risky and you’ll enjoy lower rates.
6. Get and compare health insurance quotes and you’ll pay far less than those who don’t. I recommend that you use at least five quotes sites since that will ensure you do not miss out offers not presented by the other sites. This gives you a broader basis for doing more extensive comparisons thus increasing your chances of getting better quotes.
Women In Texas Eye Extreme Sports As New Option
The world of extreme sports, traditionally a man’s world, is slowly opening up to women. In Texas, and the cities of Houston, Dallas and Austin, women are becoming increasingly interested in three of the six X-Game categories: speed climbing, wakeboarding and in-line skating. A group of women was also invited to demonstrate their talent in freestyle motocross and both vertical (or “vert”) and street skateboarding. Although the women showed they were capable of creating excitement in the audience with their feats, the money available to female competitors is still an issue in championship events.
At a recent Xbox World Championship of Skateboarding, for example, the top three male street skaters took home a total of $34,000, while the top three females took home $3,600.
While young women have participated in alternative and extreme sports from the very beginning, they have not been given the same recognition as their male colleagues, although many are doing their part to break through.
The category “alternative sports” may have been around for decades but only recently has it been called “extreme.” Publicity around the word “extreme” extends into the world of marketing, with the “extreme flavor” of a brand of chips or a drink being given “extreme taste.” For the industry, an extreme sport is defined as a “non-traditional sport that focuses on extreme and varying conditions, and challenges both the mental and physical abilities of its participants.”
While most extreme athletes average in their early 20s, some involved are much younger, even in their early teens.
It’s not necessarily the money that drives young women to compete. Another motivation is to break the stereotypes about men being the only ones out to get a rush of adrenaline. Despite having a love of extreme sports, young women competing in extreme sports seem to have accepted the fact that the money is not (yet) there for them. Sponsors now may pay entry fees, travel expenses and equipment, but the big money is still reserved for male competitors who often get paid by sponsors.
Part of the problem, observers say, is that extreme sports are driven by big business, the point being that if the industry doesn’t expect a large enough audience - - consumers ready and willing to buy the products — they don’t think its worth supporting the athletes. Others say the world of extreme sports has its share of sexism, with judging seemingly based on how women look rather than on their athletic ability.
Some women say they feel uncomfortable about the way skate magazines and images on the skate decks portray women. Advertising can also be an issue for some; clothing companies are known to hire models to wear the clothes in ads rather than the female athletes - - something observers say would not occur with men’s sporting apparel. That can create a problem when it comes to young girls choosing female athletes as role models: if they pick up a magazine, the only females they see are models skimpily dressed or in fashion photography, not competing.
Other women have taken the initiative, one being the founder of Chickabiddy, a surfing and snowboarding clothing company geared to women. Along with a line of women’s clothing, Chickabiddy sells a rash guard, a top worn during surfing to help prevent chaffing, and made especially for women’s bodies. Chickabiddy sponsors eight girls in both snowboarding and surfing, and also has a website for the “female action sports enthusiast.”
There are other people with the aims of Chickadiddy founders on the web, making the Internet one place where women interested in extreme sports can start changing their world. One place is Mxgirls.com, which focuses on the world of women in motocross, its founder having created the site due to a lack of Internet exposure.
Women are slowly breaking into the world of extreme sports, a world where men have long dominated. The more of an audience they build, the more likely it will be that interest continues to build. If you’re a young woman looking to “push the limits” maybe you should check to make sure you’re ready in every part of your life, including health insurance. Take a look at the revolutionary, comprehensive and highly affordable individual health insurance solutions created by Precedent specifically for you.
Do You Have The Right Travel Insurance Cover For That Winter Break?
During the this time of year, around 3 million people head to foreign slopes to partake in a range of winter sports activities. Whilst many associate skiing with broken limbs, many would be shocked to learn that 1 in 7 travellers require medical treatment during a snow sport holiday. Costs for medical treatments in a foreign country can escalate into 10s of thousands of pounds; especially should it be for a breakage. Air lifting and returning you to the UK could cost over £5,000 alone.
Travel insurance can cover injuries like this, although many standard policies might not. It is always worth reading cover exclusions before purchase or in your documents, especially on annual travel insurance. Several insurers offer specific winter travel insurance that gives additional cover for helicopter rescue and ski equipment such as poles etc… Checking policy documents is important for any type of insurance; it is always worth noting how much you are actually covered for.
Consumers need to understand where to look for cheap travel insurance and what to look for. Too many winter sports travelers are buying standard travel insurance at the last minute without knowing what cover they actually need and without paying attention to what is excluded from the policy.
Whilst some policies offer medical cover up to £2 million for travel insurance, some policies can be unlimited - which could help during the healing process after you have returned home.
It is also worth checking that any insurance policy that you purchase for this type of holiday covers rented equipment such as skis.
Sport Car Insurance - Insuring Your Hot Rod
Typically, when you have a sports car, you expect to have high costing premiums with your car insurance. That does not have to be the case. You can still obtain cheap sport car insurance, no matter what type of hot rod you are driving. You just might need to take some extra steps to help your insurance company lower the price of your premiums.
What steps are these? Well, talk with your insurance agent, he or she will be able to tell you how you can best lower your costs. Some steps might include:
• Parking your sport car in a garage
• Parking your sport car in a locked garage
• Having a security system installed and working
• Taking specific courses on driving
• Keeping your driving record clean
• Keeping your criminal record clean
• Increase your deductible
By taking some of the necessary steps, you could dramatically reduce the costs of your car insurance. However, it may be possible to find it by looking online, at the right places as well. There are several insurance companies that specialize in offering cheap sport car insurance specifically to those who own and drive hot rods.
It is no big secret that the internet is home to some extraordinary deals and this includes car insurance. By doing a search on it, you will find a host of companies that are willing to offer you a discounted premium for using their company.
However, do not just choose a car insurance company because they are cheap, you would do better to check out the company first. Make sure they are reliable, easy to work with, and have excellent customer service. Not only that, but you want to make sure they offer the amount of coverage you need for your hot rod.
Crash Test and Safety Research
Byline: Stephen Kratzke and Dr. Adrian Lund
Senior officials from the nation’s top crash testing organizations, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), team up to discuss how consumers benefit from vehicle safety research.
Stephen Kratzke is the associate administrator of rulemaking for NHTSA. He has been with the agency for nearly 30 years and oversees vehicle regulatory actions, as well as the government’s crash test and rollover rating program.
Dr. Adrian Lund is president of the IIHS and the Highway Loss Data Institute. He’s a highway safety expert who has been involved in health-related research since 1975. Dr. Lund is also the author of numerous scientific papers and has served on the boards and committees of many highway safety groups.
The transcript follows.
____________________
Stephen Kratzke: Hi this is Steve, looking forward to a good discussion
_______________________
Dr. Adrian Lund: Hi — this is Adrian Lund, President of IIHS. I look forward to answering your questions — hope I can type fast enough!
_______________________
Fairfax, Va.: I’m looking at possibly buying an ‘06 Saturn Vue. The government ratings give it five stars for the side test, but IIHS gives it a “poor” for its side test. I know the tests are a little bit different, but results are a bit vexing. Can you explain?
Dr. Adrian Lund: The tests are different. The IIHS test mimics what happens if you’re struck in the side by taller vehicles like SUVs and pickups — the dummy’s head was actually struck by the barrier in our test. This shows the importance of side airbags to protect the head from being hit by taller vehicles. The government test mimics what happens if you’re struck in the side by another car and also uses different dummies.
_______________________
Montgomery Village, Md.: Question for both … if the goal of your groups is the safety of the American driving public, then why the heck don’t you all just get together and come up with the same set of standards? When I’m looking at two completely different ratings for the exact same car, I am left to assume that one of you is completely wrong, and I am forced to play Russian roulette by choosing one. Will you folks ever sync up your testing standards?
Dr. Adrian Lund: It may not seem like it, but we do talk together about consumer info programs. The fact is, many of our tests are complementary, and a consumer should be looking for a vehicle that does well on all tests — those conducted by the Institute and those conducted by the government. There are vehicles that do well on all of them.
_______________________
Annandale, Va.: Thank you for taking my questions. I have a three month old infant and while child seat shopping, I feel that I tried to find the best information but could only find recall information. Are there any sources you can recommend that would help to find the best (and most up-to-date) information on infant/toddler car seat safety? Are there any car crash testing results done on child safety seats (by brand) that are provided to the general public?
Stephen Kratzke: Yes, NHTSA has two sources of safety information with regards to child safety, both available on www.safercar.gov. The first source of information is NHTSA’s “Ease of Use” ratings. This program provides consumers with information on how easy child seats are to use. The second source of information would be our recall database. The agency did consider providing crash ratings for child seats but found that there were no significant differences in the protection.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.: What are the differences in side airbags and what kind should I buy?
Dr. Adrian Lund: The most important thing about side airbags is to have them in your car. The main difference is that some protect your head while others protect only your chest and abdomen — real world data have shown an almost 50 percent reduction in fatalities in vehicles with side airbags to protect the head. Reductions for chest airbags are smaller, but still important.
_______________________
Columbia, Md.: Is all the hype around SUV safety, or lack thereof, really warranted? Sure, they’re higher up and can rollover more easily, but doesn’t their size make them more safe?
Dr. Adrian Lund: SUVs are generally heavier than cars, so they’re more protective of people in crashes with other vehicles, but they have a higher center of gravity so they’re more likely to be involved in fatal single vehicle rollover crashes. That doesn’t mean that all SUVs are unsafe. If you want to buy an SUV, look for one with good crash test ratings. Check NHTSA’s rollover ratings and make sure you buy one with electronic stability control (ESC). ESC is important because we know that it is reducing fatal single vehicle crashes in the real world, and many of those are rollovers. ESC helps you keep the vehicle under control. But ESC isn’t standard equipment on every SUV and it goes by different names depending on the manufacturer. It may be called StabiliTrak or active handling, or vehicle stability control.
Auto news: will big-car drivers pay the price? - results of the current national debate may require sport utility vehicle owners to pay higher insurance premiums and taxes - Verve
William and Janice Lykes believe that only a sport utility vehicle (SUV) can withstand Michigan’s merciless winters. The Lansing, Michigan, couple is partial to their Mercury Mountaineer’s hefty size, trucklike capabilities and high seating — all characteristics that some government and insurance officials would like to change. The Lykes enjoy their SUV and, if necessary, would grudgingly pay higher premiums for liability insurance, a possibility for SUV owners nationwide.
“The safety of the vehicle is more important than what the insurance companies would charge,” says William Lykes, an industrial hygienist who says hi auto insurer, Auto Owners, is not yet charging higher liability rates. If it does happen, he says, “I would complain to my local representative. I shouldn’t be penalized for making a personal choice.”
Those very concerns are currently under nationwide debate. At issue: should SUV owners pay a price, and should auto companies make SUVs more “compatible” with passenger cars? The debate heated up this year when the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, an influential research arm of the insurance industry based in Arlington, Virginia, released a study revealing that light trucks — pickups, minivans and SUVs — “are hostile to cars” since they cause greater damage to occupants in lighter-weight cars.
The study showed that passengers in cars weighing less than 2,500 pounds (subcompact cars) who are hit broadside by pickup trucks or SUVs are 47 times as likely to die as occupants in the larger vehicles that strike them. The death risk dropped to 27-to-1 if the car weighed more than 2,500 pounds. Keep in mind, however, that only 4% of deaths of people riding in passenger cars have occurred in collisions with SUVs.
Of course, bigger vehicles have an advantage over smaller ones. The mismatch has caused concern because of the growing popularity of SUVs: 12.6 million are now registered in the United States. This year alone, an estimated 2.5 million are expected to be sold, compared with a mere 961,000 sold in 1988.
As a result, some insurance companies and government officials want to see SUVs made more compatible with passenger cars. This would include lowering the height of the vehicle and making its structural front end crumble in a frontal crash.
The Big Three auto dealers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, are exploring ways to make the vehicles “friendlier” in crashes — including adjusting the ride height and improving road handling — but have stopped short of committing to dramatic changes. They’re also examining how passenger cars can be made safer by adding side airbags and building sturdier doors.
“SUVs are big because that’s what customers want,” says Vann Wilber, director of vehicle safety at the international department for the American Automotive Manufacturers Association. “If the marketplace demands something different, then auto companies will design something different.”
That hasn’t satisfied some auto insurers. Liability insurance is based on the driver’s age, driving record, driving patterns and other factors, but doesn’t take into consideration the size or type of vehicle because it was initially assumed that “all vehicles were created equal,” says Steve Goldstein, vice president of the Insurance Information Institute. “Some insurance companies are finding in their studies that not all damage is equal.”
As a result, Progressive of Cleveland, the nation’s fifth largest auto insurer, now charges up to approximately 20% more to insure SUVs. Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance, the third largest auto insurer, imposed premiums of an average of 5% more for SUV owners in two new markets: Pennsylvania and Maryland. “There’s a price differential for make and model now for liability because we believe that risk should be related to cost,” says Diane Tasaka, a spokesperson for Farmers.
State Farm, the nation’s largest auto insurer, disagrees. “We’ve looked at our claim experience on these types of vehicles and it really isn’t any different for light trucks than passenger cars,” says spokesman Dave Hurst.
Contact your auto insurer’s customer service department for details on how this debate may affect your premiums. For more information on the subject, visit the following Web sites: Insurance Information Institute (www.iii.org); Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Bumper mentality: Americans buy SUVs to feel safer. They should buy life insurance, too
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY sport utility vehicle drivers seem like such assholes? Surely it’s no coincidence that Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, tours Washington in one of the biggest SUVs on the market, the Cadillac Escalade, or that Jesse Ventura loves the Lincoln Navigator. Well, according to New York Times reporter Keith Bradsher’s new book, High and Mighty, the connection between the two isn’t a coincidence. Unlike any other vehicle before it, the SUV is the car of choice for the nation’s most self-centered people; and the bigger the SUV, the more of a jerk its driver is likely to be.
According to market research conducted by the country’s leading automakers, Bradsher reports, SUV buyers tend to be “insecure and vain. They are frequently nervous about their marriages and uncomfortable about parenthood. They often lack confidence in their driving skills. Above all, they are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighbors and communities. They are more restless, more sybaritic, and less social than most Americans are. They tend to like fine restaurants a lot more than off-road driving, seldom go to church and have limited interest in doing volunteer work to help others.”
He says, too, that SUV drivers generally don’t care about anyone else’s kids but their own, are very concerned with how other people see them rather than with what’s practical, and they tend to want to control or have control over the people around them. David Bostwick, Chrysler’s market research director, tells Bradsher, “If you have a sport utility, you can have the smoked windows, put the children in the back and pretend you’re still single.”
Armed with such research, automakers have, over the past decade, ramped up their SUV designs to appeal even more to the “reptilian” instincts of the many Americans who are attracted to SUVs not because of their perceived safety, but for their obvious aggressiveness. Automakers have intentionally designed the latest models to resemble ferocious animals. The Dodge Durango, for instance, was built to resemble a savage jungle cat, with vertical bars across the grille to represent teeth and big jaw-like fenders. Bradsher quotes a former Ford market researcher who says the SUV craze is “about not letting anything get in your way, and at the extreme, about intimidating others to get out of your way.”
Not surprisingly, most SUV customers over the past decade hail from a group that is the embodiment of American narcissism: baby boomers. Affluent, and often socially liberal, baby boomers have embraced the four-wheel-drive SUV as a symbol of their ability to defy the conventions of old age, of their independence and “outdoorsiness,” making the off-road vehicle a force to be reckoned with on the American blacktop. But as Bradsher declares in his title, this baby boomer fetish is considerably more harmful than the mere annoyance of yet another Rolling Stones tour or the endless commercials for Propecia. In their attempt to appear youthful and hip, SUV owners have filled the American highways with vehicles that exact a distinctly human cost, frequently killing innocent drivers who would have survived a collision with a lesser vehicle. Bradsher quotes auto execs who concede that the self-centered lifestyle of SUV buyers is apparent in “their willingness to endanger other motorists so as to achieve small improvements in their personal safety.”
After covering the auto industry for six years, Bradsher is an unabashed critic of sports-utility vehicles and the automakers that continue to churn them out knowing full well the dangers they pose. He doesn’t equivocate in his feeling that driving an SUV is a deeply immoral act that places the driver’s own ego above the health and safety of those around him, not to mention the health of the environment. Ironically, and though most supposedly safety-conscious owners don’t realize it, SUVs even imperil those who drive them.
Road Rodeo
Ask a typical SUV driver why he drives such a formidable vehicle, and he’ll invariably insist that it’s for safety reasons–the kids, you know–not because he’s too vain to get behind the wheel of a sissy Ford Windstar. Automakers themselves know otherwise–their own market research tells them so. But Bradsher makes painfully clear that the belief in SUV safety is a delusion. For decades, automakers seeking to avoid tougher fuel economy standards have invoked the fiction that the bigger the car, the safer the passenger. As a result, most Americans take it on faith that the only way to be safe on the highway is to be driving a tank (or the next best thing–a Hummer). Bradsher shatters this myth and highlights the strange disconnect between the perception and the reality of SUVs.
The occupant death rate in SUVs is 6 percent higher than it is for cars–8 percent higher in the largest SUVs. The main reason is that SUVs carry a high risk of rollover; 62 percent of SUV deaths in 2000 occurred in rollover accidents. SUVs don’t handle well, so drivers can’t respond quickly when the car hits a stretch of uneven pavement or “trips” by scraping a guardrail. Even a small bump in the road is enough to flip an SUV traveling at high speed. On top of that, SUV roofs are not reinforced to protect the occupants against rollover; nor does the government require them to be.
Financing the Sport Enterprise
Financing The Sport Enterprise
Thomas H. Sawyer, et al.
Sagamore Publishing Company
804 North Neil Street, #100, Champaign, IL 61824
1571675205 $54.95 1-800-327-5557
The collaborative effort of Thomas H. Sawyer, Michael G. Hypes, and Julia Ann Hypes, Financing The Sport Enterprise focuses on the basics of financial management especially for students in sports management curricula and professional managers. A comprehensive survey, Financ-ing The Sport Enterprise covers basic economics, sales operations, fundraising, financial accountability, planning, and purchasing. Financing The Sport Enterprise is an expertly written and presented compendium, rounded out with appendices detailing specific sports finance matters such as a glossary of box/ticket office terms, how to develop volunteer training programs, sample insurance companies offering appropriate programs, and more.
BLOOD SPORT: Do-or-Die Time
Byline: Jim Taylor Ph.D. and Florence Comite M.D.
THIS ARTICLE IS A WAKE-UP CALL.
As we have been writing it, media attention has suddenly preoccupied itself with the sorry state of the American health-care finance and delivery. The furor reached a new level of consequence on September 8, as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan digressed from his near-term economic analysis for the House Budget Committee to hold prophetic court on the decades ahead: “As a nation, we may have already made promises to coming generations of retirees that we will be unable to fulfill.” The reality of health care in America is that we don’t have the dollars to foot the bill for today’s needs, nor tomorrow’s escalating costs.
The current government obligation for taxpayer-funded Social Security and Medicare is said to total more than 10 times the $4.2 trillion national debt. What’s more, we know that with age, health-care expenditures increase. As new technologies and pharmaceuticals intervene to keep Americans alive longer, even as they suffer from chronic or acute disease, post-symptomatic life expectancy could grow by leaps and bounds. An irony of living longer, however, is that the price is steep and certain to soar, especially during the last two years of life. America’s health-care complex can barely tolerate today’s level of demand, let alone serve an exponentially growing patient population.
An analysis of the financial and political options for health-care management and reform today, in light of an almost certain meltdown in the nation’s capacity to keep a rapidly aging populace healthy, might well promote a deep sense of unease in every citizen, but especially those of us over age 50. The reality of American health care is that it is woefully unequipped with lifeboats for all.
Let’s look at the math for a moment:
*59 million are over age 55, when people begin to show health disorders.
*38 million people are ages 45 to 55
*23 million more are ages 40 to 45
*Fast forward to 2020, apply current death rates, and you get a grand total of 110 million people over age 55. Likely, they’ll compete among one another for vital health resources.
Moreover, we need to consider the rapid run-up in life span. Nothing like this has ever occurred in human history:
*35 million Americans today are over 65, receiving Medicare.
*4.6 million Americans are over 85, consuming health resources at the rate of more than $16,000 per person per year. [superscript]1 By 2020, Americans in the over-85 category will at least double, maybe triple, or even get worse as life-prolonging technology advances.
*The typical aging person, suffering a slow death from a chronic disease, burns roughly $150,000 in the last 6 months of life.
According to Lincolnshire, Ill.-based global human resources consultancy Hewitt Associates, [superscript]2 in 2004, health insurance costs will exceed $7,000 per employee, and this figure continues to rise at a double-digit rate. The heaviest part of this load is being borne by Boomers, but today’s over-85 cohort - many of them Boomers’ parents - are consuming more than $16,000 in health care, per capita. Current health-care expenditures for a 65-year-old are now four times those for a 40-year-old. U.S. health-care expenditures are projected to increase 25 percent by 2030, because the population will be older and greater in number. [superscript]3 We’re almost certain that expenditures for Social Security, fixed and variable pensions and disability payments will burst their respective cupboards in the mid-2020s.
In any case, we’d estimate that total 2025 expenditures for the caring and feeding of America’s aging populations will be roughly $5 trillion per year when the youngest Baby Boomer turns 65. To service that population, roughly 20 percent of the U.S. workforce will be dedicated to taking care of old people. In a recent forum on the nation’s health-care crisis, president of the Hospice of Michigan, Dottie Deremo, cautioned, “Baby Boomers will be like velociraptors eating every health-care dollar in sight.” [superscript]4 Yikes!
Blood Sport: Access to Care
Nothing in the world quite matches the American health-care complex [superscript]5 . It is one of seven trillion-dollar industries in the U.S. It can save a blue baby from Rwanda, and deny treatment to an uninsured middle-class baby in Chicago. It can provide the most sophisticated health care available to both an affluent person and an indigent person. Too often, though, it leaves masses of people between the two extremes in a state of arrested risk.
Many believe that insurance and Medicare will provide protection against health liabilities. But, given the supply squeeze, costs are disproportionately rising. In any case, we’d bet that minimum co-pays will continue to rise significantly (as they have this year), service cuts will be inevitable and age limits will creep up as the system becomes loaded with 110 million eligible citizens 65 and over.
Crash Test and Safety Research
Senior officials from the nation’s top crash testing organizations, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), team up to discuss how consumers benefit from vehicle safety research.
Stephen Kratzke is the associate administrator of rulemaking for NHTSA. He has been with the agency for nearly 30 years and oversees vehicle regulatory actions, as well as the government’s crash test and rollover rating program.
Dr. Adrian Lund is president of the IIHS and the Highway Loss Data Institute. He’s a highway safety expert who has been involved in health-related research since 1975. Dr. Lund is also the author of numerous scientific papers and has served on the boards and committees of many highway safety groups.
The transcript follows.
____________________
Stephen Kratzke: Hi this is Steve, looking forward to a good discussion
_______________________
Dr. Adrian Lund: Hi — this is Adrian Lund, President of IIHS. I look forward to answering your questions — hope I can type fast enough!
_______________________
Fairfax, Va.: I’m looking at possibly buying an ‘06 Saturn Vue. The government ratings give it five stars for the side test, but IIHS gives it a “poor” for its side test. I know the tests are a little bit different, but results are a bit vexing. Can you explain?
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Dr. Adrian Lund: The tests are different. The IIHS test mimics what happens if you’re struck in the side by taller vehicles like SUVs and pickups — the dummy’s head was actually struck by the barrier in our test. This shows the importance of side airbags to protect the head from being hit by taller vehicles. The government test mimics what happens if you’re struck in the side by another car and also uses different dummies.
_______________________
Montgomery Village, Md.: Question for both … if the goal of your groups is the safety of the American driving public, then why the heck don’t you all just get together and come up with the same set of standards? When I’m looking at two completely different ratings for the exact same car, I am left to assume that one of you is completely wrong, and I am forced to play Russian roulette by choosing one. Will you folks ever sync up your testing standards?
Dr. Adrian Lund: It may not seem like it, but we do talk together about consumer info programs. The fact is, many of our tests are complementary, and a consumer should be looking for a vehicle that does well on all tests — those conducted by the Institute and those conducted by the government. There are vehicles that do well on all of them.
_______________________
Annandale, Va.: Thank you for taking my questions. I have a three month old infant and while child seat shopping, I feel that I tried to find the best information but could only find recall information. Are there any sources you can recommend that would help to find the best (and most up-to-date) information on infant/toddler car seat safety? Are there any car crash testing results done on child safety seats (by brand) that are provided to the general public?
Stephen Kratzke: Yes, NHTSA has two sources of safety information with regards to child safety, both available on www.safercar.gov. The first source of information is NHTSA’s “Ease of Use” ratings. This program provides consumers with information on how easy child seats are to use. The second source of information would be our recall database. The agency did consider providing crash ratings for child seats but found that there were no significant differences in the protection.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.: What are the differences in side airbags and what kind should I buy?
Dr. Adrian Lund: The most important thing about side airbags is to have them in your car. The main difference is that some protect your head while others protect only your chest and abdomen — real world data have shown an almost 50 percent reduction in fatalities in vehicles with side airbags to protect the head. Reductions for chest airbags are smaller, but still important.
_______________________
Columbia, Md.: Is all the hype around SUV safety, or lack thereof, really warranted? Sure, they’re higher up and can rollover more easily, but doesn’t their size make them more safe?
Dr. Adrian Lund: SUVs are generally heavier than cars, so they’re more protective of people in crashes with other vehicles, but they have a higher center of gravity so they’re more likely to be involved in fatal single vehicle rollover crashes. That doesn’t mean that all SUVs are unsafe. If you want to buy an SUV, look for one with good crash test ratings. Check NHTSA’s rollover ratings and make sure you buy one with electronic stability control (ESC). ESC is important because we know that it is reducing fatal single vehicle crashes in the real world, and many of those are rollovers. ESC helps you keep the vehicle under control. But ESC isn’t standard equipment on every SUV and it goes by different names depending on the manufacturer. It may be called StabiliTrak or active handling, or vehicle stability control.