Radio Show

Most people think, "It won't happen to me."

Host Intro: Being uninsured makes it hard when ANY health concern comes up.  These days, if you?re in a car accident, it can be a disaster.  Three years ago, Colorado had a no-fault form of auto insurance, where the state required ALL car owners to carry personal injury protection insurance.  The personal injury protection paid medical bills promptly if a car driver and passengers were  in an accident . . . regardless of who was at fault.  Coverage was also flexible, to allow accident victims to choose either standard medicine or alternative care.  All that changed in 2003, when Colorado switched to a Tort form of auto insurance.  Under Tort, car owners are required to carry liability insurance, so that the innocent party in an accident can have their medical bills paid . . . IF he or she can prove the other driver did, indeed, cause the accident.  Meanwhile, personal injury protection is optional, as Med Pay.  But Med Pay's complicated, and it doesn?t cover as many options as No-Fault did, so most people don?t have it.  Those without this healthcare coverage include a woman we?ll call Jane Doe?who had the liability insurance required by Colorado Law.  But like so many Coloradans today, Jane didn?t have health care insurance or Med Pay.  Let?s listen in to Claudia?s report to learn what happened:

Groups Featured in this report include: Morgan Carroll, 303-866-2942, http://www.repmorgancarroll.com/?Representative_Carroll_in_the_News:Insurance_Official_Joined_Industry_Spin_Campaign
Cover the Uninsured Week, 202.572.2928, covertheuninsured.org
Colorado Health Institute, 303.831.4200, http://www.coloradohealthinstitute.org/hot_issues/autoInsuranceSystemConversion.htm
Short Feature Version of this Story, http://lavida.kgnu.net/lavidaradioshow.php?show_id=224




Full Text:

Monday marks the beginning of ?National Cover the Uninsured Week,? The week up ahead highlights the plight of the 43 million Americans who lack health care insurance.  Among them--nearly 800,000 Coloradans?17 percent of the state population . . and more uninsured than last year. A lot of people think the uninsured are unemployed.  That?s partly true?but mainly because many of the uninsured are children.  As for the other half of the uninsured who are adults, according to the Colorado Health Institute, most of them have full-time jobs . . . but jobs that don?t pay enough, or provide enough benefits to make health care coverage easy to attain.

Being uninsured makes it hard when ANY health concern comes up.  If you?re in a car accident, it can be a disaster, especially these days, in Colorado.  Three years ago, Colorado had a no-fault form of auto insurance.  Basically, that means the state required ALL car owners to carry personal injury protection insurance.  That personal injury protection insurance paid their medical bills promptly if they were ever in an accident . . . regardless of who was at fault.  It was also a system with some flexibility, to allow accident victims to choose either standard medicine or alternative care.  All that changed in 2003, when Colorado switched to a Tort form of auto insurance.  Under Tort, car owners are required to carry liability insurance, so they can pay for someone else?s injuriers, if they ever cause an accident.  Personal injury protection is optional now, and it?s now called Med Pay.  But Med Pays complicated, and it doesn?t cover as many options as No-Fault did, so most people don?t have it.  They include a woman we?ll call Jane Doe?who had the liability insurance required by Colorado Law.  But like so many Coloradans today, Jane Doe didn?t have health care insurance or Med Pay.  Let?s listen in to Claudia?s report to learn what happened:

Up next, Claudia will talk in depth with a number of experts on Colorado?s car insurance, especially about how confusing it is, and how someone with a head injury . . . who often needs longer term assistance, can be affected.  The experts Claudia will talk with include an insurance broker, two alternative health care practitioners whose services are LESS LIKELY to be covered under today?s TORT system of car accident insurance, an emergency room doctor, and a trial attorney.

Here?s Claudia Cragg.

Thanks for tuning in to For Your Health, on this first day of National Cover the Uninsured Week.  And Thanks to Claudia Cragg, for this in-depth look at how Colorado?s current car accident coverage laws are affecting the uninsured and those who prefer alternative healthcare.  This program was made possible in part through a grant from Sound Partners in Community Health, a program of the Benton Foundation, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  Questions or comments?  Call the KGNU Comment Line 303-447-9911.