Where is ACA?

[Wayne Renardson]

One fine day Tony Barr asked:

TB> Wayne-Speaking of political hypocrisy, you and Mike Dalton 
(below) seem to have allot of historical background on insurance 
issues in the USA.  

Probably due to the fact we are dinosaurs. Mike is rumored to be 
186 years old and I am Methuselah in drag.  

TB> More and more amputees are finding prosthetic coverage non 
existent and/or with very limited in benefits.

As you know from numerous requests to the Barr Foundation to 
fund such. And I know from personal experience and reading the 
experience of others.   

TB> As the cyberspace voice and moderator for interaction of 
amputees, can you shed some light, why ACA , allegedly, the 
national consumer advocacy organization, has been silent on 
amputee related issues of health care, i.e.O&P regulation and other 
measures that would lead to more affordable and qualified 
mandatory prosthetic coverage from third party payers?  

Quite a rhetorical question. Let's take your points one at a time:  

(1) I have no more insight than you (probably less). Having the 
ability to add/remove e-mail addresses or manage a server does not 
make me any more knowledgeable than anyone else about ACA. 
They do not copy me with their internal memos.  

(2) Why is ACA silent or not advocating to the degree you might 
wish?  

All I can offer is a bit of history. Back about 1995 or so, there was a 
question posted on SJU directed to ACA and/or their then 
representative Dr. Ed Jeffries. The question was: How much of 
ACA's funding is derived from the prosthetics industry? Follow the 
money trail.  What's that I smell?  

The query was predicated by mention of the number of advertising 
pages versus real information from amputees in In_Motion. Some 
shit-disturber even suggested that if you take the king's shilling, you 
often do the king's bidding.  

Trying to get a straight answer to this query was, uhhhhhhh, well, 
does mumbo-jumbo, obfuscation, non-sequitur, and pulling teeth, 
ring a bell? Yep.  

At that time other ACA board members were also subscribed to 
SJU, and I would venture a guess that the postings made their way 
to Knoxville. Can you imagine the nerve of dues paying ACA 
members asking such questions?  

TB> I have had better support of advocacy issues from the ADA, 
MS and cancer organizations than ACA.

So far I fail to see what they have done. They claimed to be 
advocating for the above issue (insurance) as I mentioned in a 
previous post. I sent pages of junk to Mr. Jeffries, and I guess it was 
filed haha. I am certain other people also sent material involving 
denial of service to ACA. Where is this material?  

God forbid someone should ask.....exactly who do you support re: 
legislation such as the Wexler bill in Florida. Talk about having it 
both ways. I read one response from ACA that mumbled something 
about supporting both bills (the other favored by the industry whose 
goal is to sell us gear) or "whatever was in the best interest of 
amputees."  

TB>  Facts and or speculations from the founder/moderator of the 
amputees Listserve or from the AMP-L subscribers would be 
appreciated.  

I have few 'facts'. When replies are either not forthcoming or shirk 
the real issues, well. Just the facts maaaaam. Just the facts. ACA 
reps have known about the lists for ages. They can reply for all of us 
to see and consider.  

And heaven help us that some dues paying member should ask what 
salaries are paid to 'executives' and 'consultants.' Or wonder who 
actually elects officers and/or board members.  

Ms. Angela Snow, among other observations, grabbed the big 
picture:  

AS> It sounds to me that the US is more like a third world country in 
the way it provides (or doesn't provide) for low income amputees. It 
really is disgraceful.  Governments have a choice how they spend 
their money, and if the money they spent on, say, election 
campaigns was channelled into health areas, you might see some 
improvement.  

As a lad someone once reminded me that a society can best be 
judged on the basis of how well, or poorly, it treats its very young 
and very old citizens. We in the US come up way short. BTW, you 
folks down under are welcome to send us more films such as 
'Breaker Morant', 'Gallipoli, and 'Picnic At Hanging Rock'. Some of 
your bands are pretty good, too.  


Wayne Renardson