I thought I would take the opportunity to share a recent experience through this blog. My friend Rick is a seasoned athelete who knows how to take care of himself right and keep in top shape. Rick eats healthy and keeps to a strict work out regimen and generaly seems to always have a positive attitude towards life in general. Recently however, Rick was injured in a serious car accident and as a result he suffered a badly broken leg that will take weeks or maybe even months to properly heal. Now until his leg has healed, Rick is facing a situation that he has never had to deal with before: life with a physical disability. All his life Rick has been one to push his limits and go the distance, now he cannot even make it up the staircase of his home without great difficulty. The problem of his reduced mobility is about to be lessened however, because Rick is following up on a suggestion I made to consider the temporary rental of a standing stair lift for his home. A standing stair lift is better suited for someone with little or no ability to bend their leg into a sitting positon – such as someone in a leg cast. Once this standing lift is installed, Rick will be able to get up and down his stairs with ease while in recovery and because it is only arental, there will be none of the higher stair lift costs to deal with that you would get when making a permanent purchase.

A wheelchair insurance Warning

Some companies are able to provide wheelchair insurance, among which are Medicare, Medigap and Secondary insurance, and yet there are some differences between all of these. Medicare is not federally regulated, while Medigap is, which means that for individuals getting wheelchair insurance from Medigap, benefits do not vary no matter what state they live in. There are some warnings with regards to getting wheelchair insurance. A disparity that many do not realize when it comes to Medicare and Medigap secondary insurances for wheelchairs is that the company Medicare has actually costs that are not adjustable, when it comes to specific kinds of equipment for mobility, like their power wheelchairs. However, with secondary insurance, these drawbacks may or may not exist. In the event that you find yourself in need of a power wheelchair that may cost you around $8,000 or possibly more, it may be better for you to get both Medicare and Medigap secondary insurances, instead of Medicare plus Medigap.

Wheelchair Insurance for Your Protection

There are plenty of individuals that find themselves unable to walk without assistance, and these individuals can best benefit from using a wheelchair. Wheelchairs are a necessity for some other individuals that are unable to walk entirely, and yet the truth is that not all individuals are able to easily afford a good wheelchair. Costs for a power wheelchair can easily run from a few thousand dollars to over $8,000, and this is why many individuals choose to get wheelchair insurance for reimbursement. Some companies allow for compensation, among which are Medicare, Medigap, both Medicare and Medigap (since Medicare is not federally regulated and Medigap is, it will be possible to secondary insurances with both), and for certain individuals, cost for reimbursement can even amount to 100% after deductible. While this option is not available to all, it is available to others, and these individuals are able to enjoy the full benefit of getting wheelchair insurance.

I have been employed in the Community care sector as a personal care aid for quite some years now, and I have been employed at various accessible housing sites (or buildings) during that time. Considering that I work with the physically disabled, one thing that I have always considered to be somewhat curious is the fact that many residential apartment buildings that have been constructed with the disabled tenant in mind, have been built without much in the way of – for lack of a better term – ‘accessible access’.

Accessible Housing?

What I mean by this is that some of the accessible housing apartment buildings I have been employed at do not include any kind of emergency exit system for those residents in wheelchairs; many buildings do not have any kind of ramp system in place so that, in the event of a fire or power failure due to something such as a natural disaster – all things that would likely prohibit the use of an elevator, those inhabitants in a wheelchair or mobility scooter or even those who require the use of a walker of some kind to travel any kind of distance would effectively be trapped in their own homes until such time as emergency services such as the local fire department arrived on the scene.

Justifying less than Accessible Housing

Now I understand that in many cases accessible housing apartments become so and are adapted to the needs of the physically disabled tenants at a time after the original construction has been completed. I also understand that being able to contract a building to be constructed with such needs factored into the initial design is much of the time going to be something of a fiscal or budgetary luxury, I just think that it is actually quite alarming to think that so many who live in a building intended to cater to their specific needs – one that offers a high level of accessibility inside the apartments themselves – can be home to such a shortcoming. I know that many will point at a building and say something like, ‘it would be a problem if it was not made of brick but it is so it’s not really an issue’, but still I don’t think that point really allows one to dismiss this concern. At least that is how I see it.

How about you? What does everyone else out there think of the idea that a building can be officially designated as accessible housing without much in the way of accessible emergency exits? Feel free to let me know here by leaving a comment below.