On cruelly prolonging the life of a wheelchair I

Poem:
Alas faithful Steed from Invacare
Thou art dying I am aware
O noble mount with four tires
Wouldst thou wait anon to expire?
For if thou givest me but one more season
Mayhap the powers that be will see reason
And when May comes so green and so fair
They will grant this poor knight a boon: a new motor chair

Thoughts:

I've had my current electic wheelchair for about a decade, which is about five years past the natural life of these critters.

In the old days, Medicare and/or Medicaid would buy you one after that time. But then all those ads began appearing on TV urging Grandpa to get his own wheelchair at NO COST to him, demand went up and this pleased not our government.

Can you blame it? So what it did was institute a rule that it would only buy replacement chairs if the cost of repairing your current one exceeds 80% of a new one.

"That almost never happens," said a source with knowledge of the field.

So you're stuck, right? Not so fast. If your medical condition changes, a new type of chair may help. If your back aches a lot, they now make reclining wheelchairs to help.

I do have back pain--

--Of course, I do. I'm in my late forties and these things happen, don't they? Don't be so cynical.--

I do have back pain so I was evaluated for a new titlt back chair. A week later, the inductor in my joystick went out. Don't ask me what the last sentence means. I only know the power chair was in the shop for almost a fortnight. (Look up fortnight; it won't kill you.)I also know an inductor cost $200.00 and Medicare won't get the bill because, by gum, I want a new one and you can't expect it to buy me it AND pay for repairs, can you?

This chair was back a grand total of five days when I went into the bedroom to make a call. I brushed the joystick with my sleeve and the chair died. It would not move. So I made some calls. Help, they said was on the way!

You know what that meant. I was still waiting 3 hours later when a man came I figured out that my entire controller was fried. A controller repair is a BIG thing but we--

Well, just stay tuned and keep hoping!