What Ontario needs to know about APAP, in detail & Verbatim

Jayjonbeach wrote:You know YOU can change the setting to put it on Auto right? (its what I did after one night of snoring with the mask on with a pressure of 7 which was a Sleep Doctor guess and WAY to low)

I figured I'd play things their way initially, I did monitor my oxygen last night as well but haven't gone through the data yet to see if things improved. I am still very tired this morning but with my sleep debt I didn't expect miracles.

I'm just learning about all of this, and am far from having conquered my apnea, but one thing's certain: the doctors that I have discussed this with are entirely useless.

The sleep study and doctor that I went to (in Toronto, after waiting about three months) did correctly diagnose me with apnea, which was of some use. But the way that Ontario is set up, the whole operation is basically a shill to sell you over-priced CPAP machines. They give you a very basic machine that retails in the US for about $500, but costs something like $2000 here. After a ton of paperwork, the government covers about half, but you're still overpaying. The doctor's commissions on these dinosaur machines is what appears to drive the whole system.

I took mine back after a few aborted attempts to use it, and cancelled the follow-up in their sleep torture chamber.

Bought a much better adjustable one from Second Wind for about $500 (not sure if forum rules allow us to name retailers).

That all said, it's taken me weeks to get the settings comfortable, and even so I can only tolerate it for a few hours at a time (I'll do a separate post begging for help on that).

This is just to say, the system set up in Ontario was probably well-meaning, but like most socialist arrangements it would have been better IMHO to let the market run a bit more freely.

OntarioKevin wrote: This is just to say, the system set up in Ontario was probably well-meaning, but like most socialist arrangements it would have been better IMHO to let the market run a bit more freely.

I dont know why LinkC jumped in. The American system for CPAP is no better. I read of people paying almost the internet price as a copay.

Bob

cortez356 wrote:I dont know why LinkC jumped in. The American system for CPAP is no better. I read of people paying almost the internet price as a copay.

Bob

The U.S. system is a socialistic system even before Obamacare was passed. More than half of all medical costs are already paid for by Medicare, Medicaid and some smaller programs. The industry is heavily regulated from the FDA regulating medicines, prescriptions, DMEs, CPAP equipment, and all 50 states heavily regulating health insurance.

So we have all of this government as payor and regulator and we have very high costs and unhappy patients in the U.S.

LinkC can speak for himself, but IMO at the heart of the discussion is whether a socialist healthcare system is better or a free market system is better. I know the answer to this from history: free market.

All these people wanting the government to pay for their sleep study and CPAP, somehow are able to pay for their HDTV, laptop, smart phone, Ipad, TV and internet cable, 2009 Camry, HD video camera, wine, pot, Atlantic City, hockey tickets, six dollar lattes, - well you understand.

Well, cortez, if you'd been here a year or so ago, you would know.

LinkC: Please enlighten me.

Bob

LinkC - Please don't enlighten him! NOTHING will be gained, on this forum, by going through that again!

cortez356 - Trust me. This political debate is not productive and adds nothing helpful to this forum.

Both of these statements are of course, only my opinion but this forum means a lot to me in terms of sleep apnea and cpap use and this type of discussion adds nothing to this.

cortez356 wrote:LinkC: Please enlighten me.

Bob

There was a debate here when Obamacare was wending its way through the slimy halls of Congress. Many of the Canadian members held their socialized system of medicine up as a fine example of something good and encouraged the U.S. to dive deeper into socialized medicine. It was often stated how wonderful the Canadian system was.

Now, bit by bit, post by post, we see Canadians complaining about lack of access to decent medical care. Now the truth is leaking out.

No worries, Hawthorne. That's why I replied as I did. There's no need now. We can let the Canadians duke it out...

Cortez can search the archives if he, she or N/A is really interested.

(Besides, So Well has it covered.... lol)