I strongly agree with you. I’ve asked twice about the hovaround wheelchairs that are getting to be everywhere. What happens to these $5K wheelchairs when someone cannot use them any longer or dies? Are they refurbished and given to another or sold by the family? NO response that makes sense!! Also, many of these are fraud as was my father-in-law’s chair. He had enough strength to walk on a walker or roll the wheels with his arms. We called the seller and told them we were going to file a Medicare fraud claim and they came and got it in two days and we’d given them three days!
Also, can’t tell you how many other things that are $100 here and there that he and other seniors have- like bathing and toilet supports they get everytime they are in a different home. My aunt has an expensive inhaler machine that I am sure she is billed for on medicare sitting in her garage for about a year!
What has happened? Unethical people in sales are getting filthy rich distributing these goods by frauding our government. They are aided by the “homes” that care for the elderly as they just throw things away. The ONLY reuse we saw was in a Christian nursing home where they were not wasting the government’s money but took the time to find anything we needed in their little storeroom.
Good factual post. Trust me, I know about these programs. There is no incentive to be reasonably frugal. The gov’t does try to prevent waste and abuse, but the program is simple too large to effectively manage. Further, many states are currently seeking to expand Medicaid and Medicare coverage as a work around to universal health care coverage. These monsterous programs are actually growing, and I believe critical mass is unavoidable.