Proof That Health Care Is Worthless

I obtained this through a story WTHR (Indianapolis) did on disabled, wheelchair-bound Hoosiers who are getting shafted by Medicaid/Medicare. No big shock there, as we have a disabled son. You and your doctors have to fight for every little thing you really do need in order to live, literally -- though rest assured that these are verbal fights.

Luckily, these days there's an organization in the tri-state (IN-OH-KY) area who's willing to help you get what you need if you can't get it yourself: People On Wheels.

Unfortunately, as according to their website and the report I watched, their jobs are about to get a lot harder:

A crisis in Medicare wheelchair funding is scheduled to take place that will reduce access by our most severely disabled to needed wheelchairs. This change, we believe will end up increasing costs to taxpayers because of hospitalization and nursing home fees that will be made necessary without proper seating.

Furthermore, these cuts will be adopted by Medicaid and insurers as soon as they are instituted. Only a tiny percentage of the $1.2 Billion Medicare mobility dollars are spent on 'complex rehab seating' - those chairs needed by the most mobility dependent to safeguard their health. And, cuts for these, most complex chairs are scheduled to be slashed up to 40 percent.

These are the folks we are most trying to protect. Please click on the link below and print this petition and send it to your Senator. His or her address can be found on our "Links" page under "Contact Your Senators and Representatives".

I'm hoping that our readers will take the time to print out the petition that they include on their website and urge local politicians to do something about this. I'm speaking from firsthand experience when I say that disabled citizens (those who cannot work and cannot afford a better alternative to Medicare/Medicaid, or those who are stuck with Medicare/Medicaid -- because some are forced to take it) have the worst coverage, and they're often denied the equipment they need -- and I mean NEED, as in to continue living -- because everything is too damn expensive, so Medicaid/Medicare refuses to pay the bill.

We fought our own battles with this, back when our son needed a special chair because he's outgrown strollers, and even though he can walk, he can only work short distances. Medicaid refused to believe that he needed the chair. Why? Not because of his health problems. Because the chair is $3600.

Dammit...either force medical companies to lower the prices of the equipment so that we can afford to buy it (the same could be applied to pharmaceutical companies, too, who charge people way too much for their medication), or pay the price. People's lives are on the line here.