I’ve seen motorized wheelchairs with tank
tracks for tires. Apparently, somebody is manufacturing and marketing such a device.
This makes me think of two things:
It’s intended for use only in the great outdoors.
It gives cripples access to areas they can’t get to in an ordinary wheelchair.
It empowers them to do stuff like go deer hunting
Now I like the great outdoors as much as
any cripple. And I ‘m aware (sometimes painfully so) that my participation is
often limited to the wussy trails, which are those trails in state parks and
places like that which are wheelchair accessible. That means that they are
probably paved and flat and short. The degree of difficulty is zero. Walking hikers
look at them and guffaw.
But even if this indignation inspired me
to get a wheelchair with tank tracks, I don’t know how I would transport it. It
sure as hell won’t fit in my cripple van. So, I’d have to rent a U-Haul or
something to take it anywhere.
2. Have fun getting Medicaid to pay for it. The wheelchair I’m riding around in cost
more than $20,000. And it has regular tires. So, you figure a wheelchair with
tank tracks must cost at least that much. And Medicaid makes you fight like hell
if you want them to pay for a plain old wheelchair. First, they’ll approve you
for a unicycle and then you have to get your doctor to write a long Dear
Medicaid letter detailing why the other three wheels are “medically necessary.”
And then Medicaid still turns you down again and again and makes you file about
15 appeals.
So, Medicaid sure as hell isn’t going to
pay a cent for a wheelchair with tank tracks, even if you can find a doctor who
will write a long Dear Medicaid letter detailing why tank tracks are “medically
necessary."
So, anyone who buys one of those
wheelchairs with tank tracks has to want to go deer hunting bad enough to cough
up about $20,000 of their own money
I’ll stick to the wussy trail.
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