Posted June 6, 2006

Health care denied

By Bill Kresnak

Earlier this year hundreds of workers at the American Coal Company mine in Galatia, Illinois, were denied health-care coverage for motorcycle-related injuries. Some companies do this for ATV-related injuries also.

At American Coal, if a worker is injured riding a legally licensed motorcycle on the street, there’s no medical coverage. Even if the injury is caused by another driver, the rider could lose. He’d be entirely dependent on the other driver’s insurance coverage. And these days, medical bills can quickly overwhelm minimum-coverage policies—if the other driver even has insurance.

The AMA is backing measures in Congress to bar employers from discriminating against ATVers and motorcyclists in the health-care arena. We need your help in this fight.

We need to know if your employer-provided health insurance refuses to cover ATV-related injuries. You don't know? Now is the time to find out, before you get in a crash.

Check your policies for "exclusions" that may say ATV-related injuries aren't covered. Or ask your plan administrator.

And if you find that you are not covered on your machine by your medical plan, let us know. We need to know the name and address of the company, the name of the health plan. And if you were hurt and the medical plan wouldn't cover the costs, we need to know the details.

We need concrete examples to take to Congress to show lawmakers that health discrimination against motorcyclists is happening, is crippling financially, and is intolerable.

You can e-mail the information to ATVA News Editor Bill Kresnak at bkresnak@atvaonline.com; or mail the info to him at ATVA, 13515 Yarmouth Dr., Pickerington, OH 43147.