How medical suppliers rip off medicare and seniors

This just amazed me........My husband needs a 4 wheel walker for 3 months while he recovers from back surgery. The rehab center ordered one for him and I received a call this afternoon from the supplier. Apparently 4 wheel walkers, with the large wheels, and sturdy enough for a 6' 180lb man have more features than medicare will cover.....so after medicare paid their 80% of their cost, and supplement paid 20% there was a balance due for the extra accessories that are of course, not removable. They wanted $85 dollars. So I get the make and model number of the walker.....go to Amazon.com, and I can buy that same walker for $64....out the door, free delivery, no tax. I find this outrageous. Maybe Medicare should start buying on Amazon.

archer wrote: I find this outrageous.

Me too. Think the answer might be to fire a billion bureaucrats and dismember a trillion pages of regulations to let the market work?

I can agree with the trillion regulations....it's like the tax system, layers upon layers of regs (tax code) and no one (congress) will make the effort to simplify either medicare or taxes. By simplify.....I do NOT mean eliminate. As for bureaucrats....maybe we need to reassign some to medicare fraud and abuse and crack down on companies that take advantage of both the system and the seniors who use it.

One of the advantages of having a high deductible. It will inspire the patients to shop for themselves and this will be a lot less paperwork.
Insurance companies hate small claims. Why it is much cheaper per month to have a $1000 deductible on your car insurance than a $50 one.

archer wrote: .....so after medicare paid their 80% of their cost, and supplement paid 20% there was a balance due for the extra accessories that are of course, not removable. They wanted $85 dollars. So I get the make and model number of the walker.....go to Amazon.com, and I can buy that same walker for $64....out the door, free delivery, no tax. I find this outrageous. Maybe Medicare should start buying on Amazon.

A lesson in how expensive "free" government services truly are for those who are working to supply you and your husband with Medicare. One of the reasons that if such a program is going to exist at all it should be at a lower level of government than the federal one.

And just think - this same federal government is now trying to assume responsibility for everyone's insurance to lower the cost of providing care. Uh-huh, I've got a bridge to sell you if you swallowed that one down whole.

I remember a few years ago Colorado created a low cost pharmacy for the needy but it was eventually shut down once people saw that Wal-Mart was selling the drugs for less than Colorado was buying them for.

PrintSmith wrote:

archer wrote: .....so after medicare paid their 80% of their cost, and supplement paid 20% there was a balance due for the extra accessories that are of course, not removable. They wanted $85 dollars. So I get the make and model number of the walker.....go to Amazon.com, and I can buy that same walker for $64....out the door, free delivery, no tax. I find this outrageous. Maybe Medicare should start buying on Amazon.

A lesson in how expensive "free" government services truly are for those who are working to supply you and your husband with Medicare. One of the reasons that if such a program is going to exist at all it should be at a lower level of government than the federal one.

And just think - this same federal government is now trying to assume responsibility for everyone's insurance to lower the cost of providing care. Uh-huh, I've got a bridge to sell you if you swallowed that one down whole.

Nice try to blame it on Medicare and not the suppliers.....these very same suppliers are used by BC/BS and every other insurance company. You tell me why their price for a 4 wheel walker is $249 when amazon sells that very same walker for $64, Target sells it for $72 and every other place I checked it was less than $100.....MSRP most places was around $130.

But you go ahead and blame it on gov't.......It's never the corporation's fault with you corporate apologists.....I submit that it is issues like this that are hiking up the cost of health insurance for everyone......not the ACA, or medicare, or medicaid.......corporate greed, especially in the healthcare business, costs us all......not just seniors, and people like you who can't see the cause and effect are perpetuating the problem.

But you can blame goverment or big insurers. When people are paying their own medical bills, they will shop around and the high cost suppliers will go out of business. Health costs are increasing, except in the areas where people pay for care themselves like laser eye surgery. Prices have gone down and doctors are investing in better technology.

Example: If my car insurance company is paying for body work, I go to the best shop. If I am paying, I shop around and get estimates.

archer wrote: [



But you go ahead and blame it on gov't.......It's never the corporation's fault with you corporate apologists......

But corporations are people too. Do you think that the greedy evil selfish monsters that run corporations are of a different gene pool than politicians?

Blazer Bob wrote:

archer wrote: [



But you go ahead and blame it on gov't.......It's never the corporation's fault with you corporate apologists......

But corporations are people too. Do you think that the greedy evil selfish monsters that run corporations are of a different gene pool than politicians?

no, and of same gene pool of some here. Greed and disregard for others is nothing new.