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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

October 6, 2009

Government bureaucracy can be detrimental to your health.

Yesterday I was using the Internet, shopping for a cushion to use with my wheelchair, I'm in it so often okay I'll admit it's consistent now so I need to change cushions fairly often to minimize the risks of skin breakdown which leads to a host of other problems. After locating the cushion I desired the company in question located in the United States informed me that because they have distributors in Canada they are not permitted to sell to me directly, they provided me with the contact in Canada. Only one distributor in all of Canada yet luckily they were located a few minutes away in Ottawa great I thought I'm all set.

On the United States website the cushion was listed at $209 US. We did not get into shipping costs, duties or differences in the dollar since they were unable to ship the conversation ended there.
The gentleman at the Ottawa store their Canadian distributor gave me a price of $644!
I almost fell off my chair, luckily I can't because I'm strapped in after some discussion we got down to the brass tacks of the whole thing. If you happen to live in Ontario and this explanation for the price difference does not ruffle your feathers I would recommend you check your pulse, the cause A D P for those unfamiliar with the Ontario program it stands for Assistive Devices Program whereby the government pays 75% of the cost for the necessary device the patient covers the balance. Oddly and this is a great part The Cost of the Cushion Is Set by ADP?

Talk about getting the short end of the stick or shafted for lack of a better term, this stupid cushion is $209 even if you add another $100 for shipping, handling, duties, currency differences you are still nowhere near the $644 retail price, thank heavens this item is nontaxable after all it is for disabled individuals would not want to take advantage of them now would we.

I happen to live across the river in the province of Québec "no ADP" yet that made absolutely no difference the price was the same, since there were no other distributors I eventually found a distributor in the United States that was willing to ship the item to me for $209 US plus $16 shipping the item is insured against loss I will have to bear the duties if there are any on this product and even if there are double the price and it will still represent a $200 savings.

Next time somebody talks to you about the great ADP program think of this example and do some investigating on your own you may find it possible to obtain the item cheaper by yourself without the government's assistance, as with every thing else it seems that whenever the government gets involved things get blown out of proportion.

2 comments:

Lisa Emrich said...

Excellent post. I wonder what the ADP actually pays the manufacturer for each cushion. If it is anywhere near the $644, then they've got a really bad negotiator. If it is closer to $322, then somebody is not being honest with the 75% payment calculations. Seems odd to me. Very glad that you found a US distributor to sell it to you.

Erica R said...

Greatt blog I enjoyed reading

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