Posted by stargazer on January 19, 2007, at 14:12:23
In reply to Re: The Price of ECT, posted by med_empowered on January 19, 2007, at 12:22:22
Medicare will pay for it is you're over 65 or disabled and there's no limit on how many times you can have it, many get shocked just for "maintenance" too. Regular insurance has limits on the number of treatments you can have. I haven't looked at my current policy but years ago I was limited to 12 treatments, which is at the lower end of how many you will actually need.
That may pay a factor in why age is high. Too many young people do not have insurance and could never pay for it. Also many elderly having ECT are demented and cognitively are not in a position to sign for consent. But they are allowed to anyway.
I wonder how much abuse of the procedure exists because most people having it are not in a position to make a good decisions, unlike our highly informed fellow PB'ers. Most that have it done are desparate for a treatment that they have been told will work. And they are told that.SG
poster:stargazer
thread:723962
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070119/msgs/724080.html