Dear Editor,
It is from my personal experience and heartfelt concern that I address a travesty needing attention.
Our community lacks an extremely valuable and necessary service: the transportation of homebound seniors to appointments regardless of whether the patient is on Medicaid or Medicare. We have not stepped up to the plate to provide this valuable service.
Only one company exists that will transport seniors who are on Medicaid. What happens to those on Medicare? If you are wheelchair-bound the only alternative is an ambulance to transport one to the hospital to be seen which is costly and not feasible. Adding insult to injury, physicians do not do house calls.
I ask the medical/dental and health care community to be cognizant of this vital need for our helpless seniors. A wheelchair-accessible van is needed. It is a feeling of letdown, abandonment and helplessness when one’s health cannot be attended to because one happens to be on Medicare instead of Medicaid. This lack of service is an outrage. We fall shamelessly behind other cities and states. Where is the compassion and humanitarianism from our local health care community? I have found it to be non-existent.
Sandy Lange
Sandpoint
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