Here we have a topic I am a bona fide World Class Expert on, Electric Wheelchairs for Cripples!  lol.  Along with prosthetics, this industry is overrun with people and companies who have turned an incredibly simple device into something they claim is so ultra technolgical and customized that only with years of study can a cripple get the "right" chair perfectly suited to their needs.  Needless to say, this raises the cost of getting a chair (at least trying to use either private insurance or medicare) into the stratosphere, and only a few companies get the Gold Star from the insurance companies as manufacturers and certified service providers.

Here in the Gulag, I constantly hear the horror stories of cripples waiting over a year to get a chair, and like my shitty prosthetic leg which Medicaire paid $26K for are so outrageously overpriced it's no wonder they drag their feet buying them.  I buy all my own mobility devices, and I get them for at least half the price and usually 25% of the cost of one Medicare will buy, particularly when you add in the cost of getting a doctor to prescribe one, a physical therapist to measure your body parts and a provider who will "customize" a chair to fit your body.

To get such a chair, a person needs a prescription, authorization from their insurance company, and a custom fitting from an assistive technology professional. Like a tailor crafting an exquisite suit, these technicians meticulously measure a client's body to ensure the device's specifications will match.

assistive technology professional is what the guy who sold me the leg was, and to get this sheepskin to put on the wall of your office take a 3 year graduate program which costs nearly what med school costs.  $200K in student loans he's got to pay off by selling peg legs to amputees.

Now, the fact is, an electric wheelchair is just a fucking chair on wheels with a fucking motor to propel it.  It's not a technological marvel.  If you have a fat ass you need a bigger seat, duh.  Footrests can be adjusted with an adjustable wrench, you don't even need a ratchet and socket set though it helps. They come with extra bells and whistles like lifts to help you stand if you need it or recline if you need to lay back periodically and so forth.  But there is nothing so super special or custom about any of them, and I have seen many.

ALL the chairs sold by prescription by the companies that make them can be purchased by anyone withou the prescription, as long as you have the cash.  Almost all are built in China, and your best deals are from the Chinese companies NOT certified by US insurance companies.

The thing is, many if not most of the people who need one of these chairs buy the whole idea they need it custom made and prescribed by a doctor, and their insurance company makes it as hard as they can for them to get one paid for.  I fortunately was smart enough to buy my chairs before I got all my money captured by the system.  That's why staying inside a Gulag sucks, because everything has to go through insurance and the reams of paperwork and lack of staff at every level, causing everything to take forever.

Everything on an electric wheelchair can be fixed by a decent bicycle mechanic with experience with electric bikes or scooters.  You don't need an expensive post graduate education for this job, but medicare will only pay people who do have that ticket.

My advice to anyone past about 65 is buy one of these things before you need it and keep it in the garage.  You can get a really good one brand new from China for $3k, including shipping.  It's a good insurance policy even if your walking problem is just temporary, like a broken ankle.  Also fun to cruise around on. :)

https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/01/wheelchair-repair-delay-numotion-national-seating-mobility/

After private equity firms gobbled up wheelchair makers, users pay the price in long repair times

RE