Like some endangered species, many wheelchair users and advocacy insiders believe that certain wheelchairs, or at least availability of funded wheelchairs, may be vanishing from the American landscape.

For some time now Medicare funding of wheelchairs has been a hot but difficult issue to understand. Information on this issue is usually cloaked in political language and is difficult for the average person (that’s me) to digest. Intertwined elements such as funding, competitive bidding, complex rehab wheelchairs, availability of products and services, and consumer choice have been co-mingled into an indistinguishable mess which further confuses most people.

Speaking of confusion, there are three schools of thought on this issue. The first is that Medicare is attempting to save dollars on the backs of wheelchair users and the home medical equipment industry. The second, that Congress and its honorable populace don’t understand wheelchairs, their complexity and diversity, and are therefore acting out of ignorance in passing regulations. The third, that it’s a combination of the first two. I personally am a third choice subscriber.

New Mobility Magazine has just released a supplement to their monthly magazine entitled “Wheelchair Funding Taking the Fight to Capital Hill”, which I think explains this issue in the clearest way to date. Don’t let the “Capital Hill” thing mislead you. This is not just more of the same political wonk. I’m from The Bronx and I had no problem with it. It is written plain enough so that people can understand it and decide for themselves where they stand on this issue.

Download the New Mobility supplement (PDF).