Noob says 'Hi'

[Ozzy Mosis]

Hi Folks,
As a complete Newbie I just wanted to say Hi. Just received my first Cpap 3 days ago ( what a birthday present?! )
but seems to be doing some good already...maybe too early to tell. Its a trial unit until next week when I pick up
my 'real' unit - a S8 without data & autoincrease I think. Anyhoo, gotta stick with it and give it a fair trial even tho
the Hannibal Lecter look isnt that attractive hehe.
Regards Bob

[rested gal]

Hi Bob, and welcome to the board. Cool nickname.

Happy belated birthday to you. Or, as some have put it before on CPAP anniversaries -- Happy Breatheday.

[Ozzy Mosis]

Jeezo..just been reading some of the nightmare issues you guys over the pond have to go thru ( heath care wise ) to get your equipment!
Apart from the wait to get a sleep study and the diagnostic results thru I was issued with the Cpap & mask within a month at zero cost via
our National Health Service. Basically, this service is 'free' ... when in employment we have our salaries automatically deducted either weekly
or monthly by about 7% of our gross income up to a max ceiling of around $45k. The maximum anyone will pay no matter how much they earn
is circa $3k per year. This entitles anyone to unlimited health treatment without further cost regardless of whatever is needed. The only drawback
(apart from emergency care of course) is that you may have to wait a while for treatment if its not life threatening. The only stuff we have to pay
for is a $10 cost for each perscription drug or item which isnt so bad and poorer folk or unemployed get them free.
Yes we can jump the queue by going 'private' and paying and many people have health plans running also but these are in the minority.
There's pro's & cons with both systems I guess but I reckon I'll stick with the Brit System for the time being

[robertmarilyn]

Anyhoo, gotta stick with it and give it a fair trial even tho
the Hannibal Lecter look isnt that attractive hehe.
Regards Bob

No no Bob, don't think of it as the Hannibal Lector look...think of it as the "ace fighter pilot" look!
mar

[Uncle_Bob]

Welcome Ozzy.

Good to hear your costs are low over in Aus, I'm a limey orginally and now US citizen. I have a friend in England who has been told to buy his own machine as its a 2 year wait for one on the national health system.

Anyway although you paid diddly squat for your machine i think its only a basic one in terms of data. I don't think it will allow you to monitor your leak rate, AIs and AHIs unlike the more expensive S8 Elite II model. Most people find monitoring their data to be a very important part of their treatment.

[elader]

Jeezo..just been reading some of the nightmare issues you guys over the pond have to go thru ( heath care wise ) to get your equipment!
Apart from the wait to get a sleep study and the diagnostic results thru I was issued with the Cpap & mask within a month at zero cost via
our National Health Service. Basically, this service is 'free' ... when in employment we have our salaries automatically deducted either weekly
or monthly by about 7% of our gross income up to a max ceiling of around $45k. The maximum anyone will pay no matter how much they earn
is circa $3k per year. This entitles anyone to unlimited health treatment without further cost regardless of whatever is needed. The only drawback
(apart from emergency care of course) is that you may have to wait a while for treatment if its not life threatening. The only stuff we have to pay
for is a $10 cost for each perscription drug or item which isnt so bad and poorer folk or unemployed get them free.
Yes we can jump the queue by going 'private' and paying and many people have health plans running also but these are in the minority.
There's pro's & cons with both systems I guess but I reckon I'll stick with the Brit System for the time being

Sounds like Socialism. What if I don't want health care? I am still forced to have it? Freedom loving people everywhere loves our freedoms. Oh wait, that was the last administration. Never mind.

Welcome to the forum.

[Julie]

"What if I don't want health care" ??? That's like my saying, years (well decades now) ago when buying our first house, that we had no children so why did we have to pay municipal taxes that schools were a big part of! Paying tax for 'obvious' things like schools, roads, health care, is just part of normal life in a western democracy. There's nothing "socialistic" about it!

[montana]

My Son lives in Australia and loves the health care plan there. I sure like my medicare If that is socialized medicine I will keep it ..thank you very much.
Are there Aussies on here?

[Ozzy Mosis]

Thanks to Mar for planting the pilot image in lieu of hannibal - nice one!!
and also to Julie & Montana for seeing what I was getting at - seems I opened a hornets nest of sorts ooops sorry Elader, I guess that the health plan over here could be construed as socialism as it was a socialist government that started it over 60 years ago and no right wing government since has had the cojones to even try to rescind the concept. No, you don't have to have it but you still have to pay for it its just tax in another disguise!and thats a global pandemic! The good news is that if you ever get over here on holiday and get yourself involved in a traffic accident you wouldn't end up with a huge bill on discharge from hospital...now I don't call that socialism, just basic humanism! (for the record I'm right wing rather than left by the way). I'm sure that if I was lying in a gutter with multiple injuries, I dont think I'd refuse treatment because of a political standpoint! But hey, diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks...it sure would be boring if we all thought the same.
Gotta say that Im really glad that I stumbled on this site as I was on a huge downer when the doc diagnosed me with OSA ( should've listened to my better half - she's been telling me for years!) and that the 'cure' was a cpap unit. Just reading various topics and the attitude you guys over in the USA have regarding the whole cpap concept is so reassuring. Im looking at it in a whole new light - a positive one in the way you guys embrace it instead of a stigmatic burden!
Thanks and Best Wishes to all of you out there!

[roster]

........ I sure like my medicare If that is socialized medicine I will keep it ..thank you very much.
.....

Medicare is not socialized medicine. But Medicare, along with Social Security, is the biggest Ponzi scheme (Madoff times one billion) in world history.

Supposedly you pay into a Medicare/Social Security account and the funds will be available for retirement. But former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill describes what is really happening.

We've been spending money all along. It's a giant fraud; it's a giant Ponzi scheme. Every year we took the money and we spent it on other things.

There's a so-called famous lockbox in West Virginia I went to look at when I was secretary of the Treasury. You know what's in the lockbox? Actually it's a filing cabinet, and there are some pieces of paper that say, "We owe you." There's no money there; there are no investments there. There's nothing there but a piece of paper. That's a fraud.

People think, "Hey, I put money all my life in Social Security and Medicare." You didn't really. The government just took it and spent it on something else. There's no money there.

Medicare seems to be a wonderful thing until you pull up the skirt and look under the table - nothing's there. Like all Ponzi schemes, the day of reckoning comes and brings hardship that is a great multiple of all the accumulated benefits.

[Lee Lee]

Hi, Bob!
Just want to say Hi and welcome you to this board.
You're going to feel better, and as an added bonus, you've just made a bunch of new friends!
Best to you,
Lee Lee

[Ganesha]

Welcome Bob -

Interesting that 3K is your max out of pocket. That is what my new Aetna plan has. I wonder if they got the idea from the UK.

Mark