My dad had a stroke & needed a wheelchair. We borrowed 1 for a short time from friends.Didn't work out well! Dr. gave us prescription for it since he could not walk without walker & safety belt & someone holding belt & 1 side of walker. They are very unstable if you want to fall off to 1 side,could easily flip it over. So wheelchair was best way to get dad to table & to his easy chair ,bathroom & bed. Not so easy. The wheelchair people came & measured couple of doors & brought a wheelchair, well, couldn't get it through area where bathroom is, too wide of wheelbase. Also when I tried to fold it & lift it so we could get him to dr. when required,they had sent out a heavy 1. So we measured doors & came up with narrower size,dad was only about 140 lbs so could have smaller area in seat without a problem. They got us a Karma Aircraft-Grade Aluminum Alloy frame chair with silver & black & very attractive & I could actually pick it up & get it in trunk of car(very important),easy to get through the house & he could even move it himself down the hall or out of kitchen so "not stuck somewhere", so lot of things to consider.We haven't had any problems with it, just added a thick cushion as he sat in it a lot with a soft light blue baby blanket(type that doesn't bunch up) so if he spilled food or drink could easily change it for another little blanket.(folded twice so about size of seat.) So anyone needing a chair these are the things you need to be aware of. My neighbor had a wheelchair & said I could use it- It wouldn't fit in the trunk of car even with 2 of us trying to get it in there. That's when I knew it was not going to be easy! Good Luck folks & be persistent!

Early detection is key to cancer survival rates and England does not cover early screening as well as many other countries do and thus they are near the bottom of many cancer survival stats with the Us, Japan and France at the top of a 2008 study of five common cancers. In our country those on government healthcare fare much worse than those with private insurance, food for thought. It seems that poorer people everywhere fare worse than those with more. This article is very recent and informative for comparing life expectancy and treatments between countries. You may be surprised but if you take away accidental deaths(cars, violence, overdoses) guess which country has the highest life expectancy, yes the USA does. The new OECD ten year study has not been published yet and the chart in the link is the most recent data available so this might change but probally not that much. Here is a link that might be useful: wealth begets health

You really might want to consider the former employer's pharmacy plan - but where I'm a bit confused... if your husband goes for the pharmacy plan for drug coverage and that proves satisfactory - why would there be a need for a switch to the Medicare Part D in 2012? He would, in effect, be dropping his creditable coverage and that creditable status doesn't carry over to a new plan (ie Medicare Part D because they don't care what you might have had), and would be subject to the forever penalty. Creditable is just comparing what you have against whatever else is out there. An actuarial firm determines that your plan offers Rx coverage that is equal to or better than Medicare Part D. Should be easy enough for him to get the boiler plate notice of "creditable" insurance for drugs from his former employer to keep in his files if he goes with what they're offering. In fact, it's a requirement that the notice be sent each year. It's an unimpressive few sheets of paper stating simply: The Society (I'm retired from the Nat'l Geographic Society) is required to issue this annual notice to participants. Then it goes on to explain Medicare Part D, why I don't need it, why I can't be covered for drugs under more than one plan, and what happens if I drop what I have for something else. I still think that the Medicare Part D penalty is imposed whenever it is not signed up for when you initially become Medicare eligible at 65. Guess I would check with the former employer - HR there should be on top of what they offer. And I'd call Medicare too - or your closest SS office. I found the people at our Social Security office really helpful - on the phone and in person.

I just turned 65 on the 25th of April and with that birthday I was switched from Medicaide to Medicare. What a nightmare, but that is another story all to itself, however: Last Tuesday Jan was out shopping and she had to stop by our pharmacy. While she was there she called to tell me that they had a prescription for me that my doctor had called in. I said, "No problem, just pick it up and if there is any co-pay use my debit card (Jan carries a copy of my debit card). When Jan got home she said she did not get my prescription because I have to go to the pharmacy and sign something. The next morning I went to CVS and talked to the pharmacist, and after she explained it, I have to say, I am very favorably impressed. She said about a year ago the Medicare/Medicaide bean counters came in and did an audit. They were not in the least concerned about what we charge for drugs, what they were looking for was fraud. She said, just in our store alone we have about 10,000 customers who get controlled meds and a very large percentage of those ppl are either on Medicaide or Medicare but what they were actually checking was to see if the customers on our list were actually alive. She says, you know only too well that many of our customers are physically or mentally shutins and they rely on a third party to pick up their meds, but what the bean counters were finding was that some of the customers had died, but the third party was still routinely picking up the prescription. In fact, they found one that was picking up a very highly controlled med for a person who had died 3 yrs before. Needless to say, those meds were being used to support a personal habit or being sold on the street. She said, "you can still have a third party pick up your meds, but our store has a new policy where we ask every customer to come in at least once every 6 months and sign a letter confirming they are still alive & well, and on that letter we can confirm the names of ppl that we are authorizing to pick up meds for us, and if you cannot physically come in, call us and we can have our delivery man bring the form to you." She turned and walked over to one of the clerks and got a paper which she brought back to show me. "Look here, we now get a list from the county coroners office once a week listing everyone who died in our county in the last 7 days, and when we get that list we have one of the clerks post the info on our computer to insure no one can get any meds for that person." She then told me that although this is a policy in thier store, they are rapidly convincing other pharmacies in the area, both CVS & others to adopt the same policy. Not only will it help control the ammount of prescription meds that are ending up on the street, it will ultimately help reduce medical costs as well... Personally,,,I am all in favor of it.