Estimated Minimum Savings to the Medicaid Budget in Arkansas by Implementing a Primary Seat Belt Law

A 2003 study estimated that if all States had primary laws from 1995 to 2002, over 12,000 lives would have been saved. Failure to implement a primary belt law creates a real cost to a State’s budget for Medicaid and other State medical expenditures. This study estimates the minimum dollars Arkansas can expect to save on direct medical costs (primarily paid through Medicaid) by the implementation of a primary seat belt law. The current study analyzed Arkansas’s 2005 Hospital Discharge Data, including only cases where the external cause of injury was a motor vehicle crash. The total estimated cost paid by Medicaid from motor vehicle crashes is $36 million for the first year and $6.7 million for each year thereafter. In 2005, Arkansas’s seat belt use rate was 68.3%. Based on this conversion rate one would expect belt use to increase by 12.68% and of those newly belted individuals, at least 50% would avoid injury. In 2005, The Federal Government reimbursed Arkansas at 73.37%. Accounting for this reimbursement, the first year savings to the State by implementation of a primary seat belt law would be about $0.6 million. Arkansas could expect to have saved $4.2 million in the first 5 years and $11.1 million over 10 years.

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• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/16258
• Corporate Authors:

  Preusser Research Group, Incorporated

  7100 Main Street
  Trumbull, CT  United States  06611

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Tison, Julie
  • Chaudhary, Neil K
• Publication Date: 2007-3

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 12p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Savings; Seat belts; State laws; Traffic crashes
• Identifier Terms: Medicaid
• Uncontrolled Terms: Cost savings; Medical costs; Primary seat belt laws
• Geographic Terms: Arkansas
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Law; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I10: Economics and Administration; I84: Personal Injuries;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01095902
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-810 744
• Contract Numbers: DTNH22-05-D-15043, Task Order No. 0008
• Files: HSL, NTL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: May 2 2008 4:14PM