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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1999)
Car wars Drivers ’lack of road etiquette toward bicyclists defies common sense Beegeeohoooonnk!! This was the obnoxious greeting I was recently pelted with. I’m riding my bike to school, like a good little girl, in my own lane, not taking up any more space than necessary and, WHAM! This noise collides with my sys tem, full force. The car behind me actually wanted me to move! It pulls up, not more than 2 feet behind me, and follows me at that distance until I was nice enough to move out of its way. I didn’t have to move. Legally, I had every right to be there. I decided to not take issue with it - to drop it. But when the car pulled up next to me at the stoplight, and the women in the car actually glared at me, it just went too far! The glare I was so pretentiously given might have been cast with intent - to put me in my place - but it back-fired, baby! I instantly went into cat-fight mode. Settle down, guys. I’m pissed! This entire road control obsession found iR the brain of nearly every motorist has just become too danger- - bus. And I’m getting sick of it. On behalf of safety-lovers every where, I am screaming equality! It’s not like I’m forced to ride my bike and would just pretty, pretty please love it if you could accommo date me. I own my own car, and it’s adorable. I own my own bicycle, and it’s very high-tech - the perfect mountain bike. Therefore, I choose to use my bike. It is not a necessity, like it is for many of the bicyclists on campus. However, I want to get one thing straight right now. We, as bicyclists, have the same claims to the road we choose to share with you. Do you hear me? Historically, we were here first. As technology increased, sociable road etiquette decreased. First, motorists use less intelli gence on their daily drive than do bikers. Motorists command the use of turn signals, horns, etc. Bikers must rely on hand signals, ’ yelling, etc. We understand that you’re not smart enough to remember little hand signs. We understand that your horn is a tool of overcompensation. It’s fine. We’ll patronize you. If you, as a motorist, are too lazy to push those extremely difficult pedals to make the little wheels go round and round, it’s permissi- i ble. We’re allowing you to be I slobs. Stick with your ozone-deplet ing hate machines. But don’t ever, not even for a second, think you can push us around. Sure, you’re bigger than we are. Oafs usually are. But, ah, how the mighty tumble. Now, I’m not excusing crazy bicycling habits. There is no excuse for psychos to be weaving in and out of pedestrians, inducing virtual heart attacks. And if a bicyclist is not going to stop at traffic lights, as they are required to do (just like you dri vers, sweetie) then they should be ticketed, fined, impounded - what ever. Just treat ’em the same as everyone else. If anything, we’re helping you out. All anyone whines about these days is the parking problem. And I agree that there is a definite problem. But as useful as rallies are, in the meantime you could be, oh, I don’t know, actually DOING SOME THING ABOUT IT! Those who scream the loudest are usually heard, so keep yelling. But, for goodness Ui sake, don’t kill those who are actually helping you. By riding our bikes to campus (like you should be doing, you lazy bums), we are reducing the occupan cy of parking spaces. Put two and two together, exer cise-phobes. Here’s your excuse to stay out of the Campus Recreation Center. But you’re biting the hand that’s feeding you. Trying to run us off the road is merely creating chaos for you. But I understand you have noth ing better to do with your lives. However, there are those of us who are attempting to remedy life’s problems: pollution, idiocy, obesity and the ultimate of all problems - parking spaces. So give us a little help. You still don’t like the way I bike? Walk. Shawn Drapal/DN Jessica Eckstein is a junior communication studies major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist. Healthy savings Health care problems can be solved by following Forbes’lead After the pushing and prodding of friends and roommates, I finally went to the doctor for a nagging cough. I visited the University Health Center, where they diagnosed a small case of bronchitis and prescribed some medi cine for me. And when I paid $ 10 for about a week’s worth of pills, I was told I got a good deal. Isn’t health care in America won derful? Inflated Costs So we’re all unhappy with our nation’^ health care. Premiums are huge, deductibles are high, and we don’t have much choice in doctors and hospitals. And that’s just for those pf us who have insurance. Forty-three million Americans don’t even have coverage In California, that dumber grows by 50,000 a month. So we’ve put insured people on the backbumer and focused our attention on the unin sured. Sixteen states have recently legis lated mandates to help the uninsured with health coverage. The number of people without insurance in those states is growing eight times faster than the national average, not because people don’t want to pay for their health care but because they can’t. Medicare sucks and probably will be gone by the time my hair turns gray. Medicaid is equally screwed up. Health care costs are out of control like Regis Philbin with a little caf feine. And we’ve got to do something to stop it. Some people are calling for a “Patients’ Bill of Rights” - more leg islation that will supposedly give us more freedoms. More regulation or even nationalized, government-run health care could be in our future. But I hope not. Automotive People One of the reasons insurance costs are skyrocketing is because the coverage is so expansive. Almost all insurance plans cover every type of health problem or visit. That means everything from checkups to coughs to cancer. And we think that makes total sense, that such plans are just thorough and broad. Ironically, we don’t have that mentality when it comes to similar types of insurance. I pay monthly premiums for car insurance on my 1992 Volkswagen. But I don’t expect GEICO to pay every time I go to Jiffy Lube, have a part replaced or clean the windshield. Those things are general upkeep that I should expect for having a car. And yet every time I go to the doctor for a routine checkup or sore throat, I expect my health plan to help pay the bill. Insurance is mainly for upkeep on our bodies. The majority of health care costs arise from routine visits rather than major illness or injury. Premiums are so high because most health care visits are minor, and the insurance companies won’t blink an eye at covering them. They just raise rates and smile at their fat wallets. Ownership and Savings Plans that solely cover unexpect ed major disease or catastrophe aren’t readily available now. And even if a family budgeted for the routine health expenses, they wouldn’t be able to find a plan that would reduce their rates accordingly. Insurance companies don’t want to change because they’re making so much money. The government isn’t jumping to act; the officials are pup pets to their lobbyist friends. The peo ple who need to get on board for this to work are the employers. They don’t want to pay big money for employ ees’ insurance, so they will support any measures that keep costs down. And we need to look no further than the race for president to find out H They took ownership of the money like it was theirs - because in reality it was. how to sway the employers toward this reform. When Steve Forbes became CEO of Forbes magazine in 1990, he saw serious increases in health premiums for his workers. His employees were abusing the system, like all of us, simply by not treating the health care money like their own. Each family seemed to exploit the system just a little - as long as its rates weren’t directly raised as a result. So Forbes instituted a type of medical savings account, or MSA. Employees received $1500 each year for paying routine health expenses. They could keep the money that they didn’t use at the end of the year. They took ownership of the money like it was theirs - because in reality it was. Money in Your Pocket In most health plans, people tend to take advantage of the insurance more at the end of the year. Deductibles are met, and it’s like money in our pockets, ready to bum. But Forbes’ plan encouraged just die opposite. Save the money because it’s yours. And his plan worked. Health expenses at the magazine haven’t increased in seven years. If we look at Golden Rule Insurance, one of the few companies that handles a substantial number of MSAs, it’s easy to see that these things can work. Working families make up three-fourths of new MSA buyers. Nearly 80 percent are self employed. And one-tenth of the new buyers are single parents. This isn’t one of those high falutin’ plans conceived to make the rich get richer. It just makes sense. So we can either pass a “Patients’ Bill of Rights,” further bloating big government, or we can follow Steve Forbes’ lead and call for a “Health Care Declaration of Independence.” Put the power to control health care in the hands of the people, where it belongs. Some information for this column was based on a speech given by Steve Forbes before the National Managed Healthcare Congress in Atlanta on March 30. J.J. Harder is a senior political science and broadcasting major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist