Shocked: Health Insurers won’t pay for iPhone text-to-speech
insurance companies would rather spend $8000 on a bulky PC device that requires disabling most of the functionality of the PC instead of $300 on an iPhone that can change someone’s life.
we’ve lost two family friends to A.L.S., this is an outrage…
Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com
Insurers Fight Speech-Impairment Remedy
Kara Lynn has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., which has attacked the muscles around her mouth and throat, removing her ability to speak. A couple of years ago, she spent more than $8,000 to buy a computer, approved by Medicare, that turns typed words into speech that her family, friends and doctors can hear.
Dismayed by the PC’s limitations and clunky design, Ms. Lynn turned to a $300 iPhone 3G from Apple running $150 text-to-speech software. Ms. Lynn, who is 48 and lives in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said it worked better and let her “wear her voice” around her neck while snuggling with her 5-year-old son, Aiden, who has Down syndrome.
Medicare and private health insurers decline to cover cheap devices like iPhones and netbook PCs that can help the speech-impaired, despite their usefulness and lower cost. Read more at www.nytimes.com
