Medicare and Walkers

Much to my annoyance, Medicaid doesn't cover the walker that that my mother needs. Medicaid only covers a basic walker (see to the right) but my mother wouldn't be able to get around using this. She needs a rolling walker. I talked to Medicaid and to the pharmacist and whatnot, but Medicaid won't even let me pay the difference between this REALLY basic model of walker and the kind of walker that her doctor prescribed.

It's infuriating.

Her old walker broke in a fall. The last time I was in Milwaukee I fixed it so she could use it, but I had to take one of the brakes off. While this has potential for morbid amusement, it is far from ideal. I was talking to her about it a few minutes ago and decided we had to get her something better, so I went to Overstock.com and bought this one (see left).

Oh, guess how much walkers cost? This one was originally $400! I got it for $92 at Overstock.com, with shipping. I put it on my credit card, but don't worry, I immediately set up a payment with Wells Fargo to pay off the credit card on Friday when I get paid. Also, my sisters should reimburse me for this.

I was surprised that I couldn't find any blogs on medical bills on a cursory Google search. That's something I would like to look into. My mother had multiple illnesses when I was growing up, and it eventually bankrupted my family. I found out only recently that we almost lost the house when I was in high school. My father was always very good with money, but he was also a little TOO determined to cover the hospital bills, and he ended up draining his 401K to get them paid. A lot of my financial problems stem from growing up in a household where my parents were so behind in their bills and so overwhelmed by the medical issues, they didn't (or really, couldn't) make very sound financial decisions. I believe my father racked up about $10K in credit card bills over seven years, and he wasn't making that much money to begin with. We don't actually know the full extent of what happened to my mother or what's going on with her now. We think during the course of all the medical treatments from years ago, she had a series of small strokes, which make it difficult for her to get around.

I'll probably blog more about this later, as I'm partially responsible for my mother's bills these days, and while things are going okay, they could be better.