Posted by NickD (209.83.95.157) on October 07, 2000 at 09:04:20:
Been awhile since I posted, still enjoying my clusters, what else can you say about them. I learned thatCyclobenzaprin let's me go through the night without a CH, it's a short term medication, but I am only taking two per week, bottle of 30 cost $5.86, cheap relief for those that have soft tissue induced CH's, I expected that I would get dumped off my HMO, one year after my settlement, don't bitch anymore, just accept it, high risk insurance is way too expensive, only panic was losing my oxygen concentrator, couple of weeks ago, I typed oxygen concentrator on ebay.com, hit it just right and got an almost new Invacare 5, 300 hours on it for $440.00 delivered, a new one cost around $3,000.00, got the concentrator in, it was like new, I plan on doing my own maintenance, ordering the service manual and extra filters, the valve is warranteed for life, and a compressor rebuild kit lists for $67.00, the only maintenance, the one my HMO was paying for had 29,000 hours on it, but my unit has a five year warranty, so I am not worried about it, it's my concentrator and no one is going to take it away from me, that is a good feeling when you depend so heavily on something to ease the pain.
I also noted a ton of medical oxygen tank equipment on ebay.com, read a post further down about $67/month rental, hell you can buy the tanks and gauges for that amount, my health care supplier uses a local welding shop for refills so why pay all these professionals for something you can do yourself for pennies? My HMO was paying $175.00 a month for that beat up old concentrator.
I am not really upset about losing medical insurance, my neighbor works for the insurance company and in a very canid discussion, they add up your bill tack on a 20% profit and that's what you pay, if you have a preexisting condition, they dump you, it's all about money. One of the key elements is that doctors have two rates, you normally pay twice as much as the HMO does, so you have to bargain with the doctor just like taking your car in for an estimate, I already talked to my pharmacist, they do the same thing, if one pharmacist won't give you a break, try another one, found one doctor already that has an office call set at 25 bucks, hardly worth paying $10,000 a year for medical health insurance, this last year I had only two visits, but hell, I am high risk. So I should pay $10,000 when I can get by for $50.00? If I get worse, hell, just my blow my head off, beats working your can off to make some damn insurance company rich, no sense in getting upset, just take one day at a time. I am disappointed in both Bush and Gore, they both want to find means of having the tax payers pick up the bill when the entire medical industry is way overcharging, but they have too much power, in 1972 a room at our local hospital costs 40 bucks a night, that same exact room today is over $2,000.00 a night plus whenever all those pesty people stop in to see how you are doing, they manage to tack on another $2,000.00, I studied my son's bills, he kicked some of these do gooders out, but they still charged his account, even the minister tacks on a bill as do these student hospital residents, it's just one big racket, 300 bucks for a five minute visit, that's rediculous. Sorry to go on like this, know many of you are going through the same thing, but thanks to sites like this and many others, we can learn what works and doesn't work. Peace.