By Doug Thompson
Stephens Media
LITTLE ROCK — A bill that would require motorcycle riders to have health insurance or wear a helmet went nowhere Monday in the Senate Committee on Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs.
Senate Bill 29 by Sen. Kim Hendren, R-Gravette, failed to draw a motion from any committee member present after the bill’s presentation Monday.
The bill would require motorcycle drivers and passengers to wear helmets unless the cycle has a state sticker confirming that the owner is covered by at least $10,000 worth of health insurance. Hendren said he introduced the bill to encourage helmet use and because insurance would help defray some of the cost of treating severe head injuries.
Hendren’s Senate Bill 124 suffered the same fate Monday. The bill that would require hauled loads of sand or gravel to be covered with a tarp died for lack of a motion to advance it.
“I think I may have to get my bills in front of committees where I’m a member,” Hendren said.
Dr. Jim Bledsoe of Rogers testified for the helmet bill. He said a $10,000 policy was minimal, barely able to cover the emergency room costs of a serious head injury. Having uninsured riders amounts to a tax on everybody else who has to pay for treatment, he said.
Rodney Roberts of Little Rock, owner of Rodney’s Cycle House and a longtime advocate for motorcyclists, said bill supporters have pushed for similar measures since Arkansas repealed its mandatory helmet law in 1997, yet continue to fail to present evidence that a helmet law would reduce state-borne medical expenses.
Senate Bill 29 was “unenforceable,” Roberts told the committee. “People pay insurance premiums by the month. I could go get insurance for one month then get me a state sticker saying I had insurance that I don’t have to renew for three years” under the provisions of the bill.
He said most motorcycle riders have health insurance, although he did not present data to confirm a percentage. Motorcycles are rarely a person’s main source of transportation, he said. People who can afford a motorcycle for recreational riding can afford health insurance, and people who can afford health insurance usually get it, he said. He guessed that 90 percent of riders have insurance, which would make the law largely unnecessary, he said.
Under the logic of the bill, the state “could tax people for going outside and not wearing a straw hat” because of an increased chance of skin cancer, Roberts said.
