Is this a rip off or not?

I posted this in the health forum but know some may never go there so posting it here also.

I checked AARP perscription website for the price of one of my Med (BISOPROLOL/HCTZ 5/6.25 TAB) Boy, is there a difference but not what I expected. My pharmacy charges $9.74 for 30 pills... AARP charges $19.86.. Sounds like a rip off for older people to me by AARP. Either that or our pharmacy is dirt cheap. They don't honor discount cards.. no wonder :) Just checked my other perscripion(ESTROPIPATE0.625 TABLET) & my pharmacy charges $9.07..AARP charges 13.40.. not as much but still higher. I save $14.45 buying local. Check local before ordering from AARP!!!
Sugar

Well, I have found the same to be true of other "deals" through AARP. It's sad, because so many people place their trust in this vast organization, and never think to question. I have learned that the so-called "AARP discount" at motels, for instance, is available, such as it is, to anyone who asks for it. But it's not really a discount, so much as it's a lower quality room, sort of like the automotive service AAA used to offer. (I say used to because I stopped that one 30 years ago after they sent a letter telling me I had used them three times for road service in a 12 month period, and this was excessive. They only used the worst garages and tow services available.)
In the end, it's still best to try to negotiate your best rate without benefit of membership cards. Even AMEX is no longer reliable for special benefits.

AARP is one big joke!!

"eyes"

And a mighty profitable one, Eyes.

I'm so glad I read this. I just received a membership offer this week and was thinking of joining. Not!

snowhermit.. we have their extended medical insurance & it has paid everything.. no complaints there at all.. also our mobile home insurance with them. Not many company will cover them in Florida. No claims so far(hope we never do) so not sure how they pay but our medical has been a blessing. DH was in ICU several days ..in the hospital a week & we didn't pay a cent. It has paid all our Dr bills & test. Our recue squad here cost $400 but but the insurance even paid that. I have no complaints with the insurance but sure do with the extras they offer. They are a laugh with perscriptions for sure. Everyone thinks these cards & "special" deals are good.. BEWARE.
I have no complaints with AAA. My son had it & used it a lot with no problems. We also have it but never used it YET & hope we never have too.. We had a flat tire at home just yesterday but DH changed it. They changed many tires for my son ..started his car & towed it many times.

Thanks Sugar. I have full coverage insurance through my DH work. It was the extras they offered that I was thinking about. This thread came just in the nick of time since I was going to join them tomorrow.

Thanks for the info, I was thinking about joining but my brother-in-law had some problems with them and I wanted to get more Info before plunking down any cash....Guess I'll keep my cash......... :o/

Interesting thread, because several years ago I met a woman, Vera Van Atta, who owns a B&B on Keuka Lake, one of the Finger Lakes of Central NY. She told me her son had written a book, an expose on AARP, and that they were a big ripoff. Here is a website about the book titled Trust Betrayed - Inside the AARP by Dale Van Atta.

http://www.nrbookservice.com/bookpage.asp?prod_cd=C4907

Am I the only one here who feels depressed and saddened by this situation? It seems there is no such thing left as an organization which can withstand scrutiny. I won't debate your favorite, as I can well imagine almost everyone here has something they believe is above such tactics. But when I learned, many years ago, that the American Heart Association, several similar groups for other serious conditions and even many church organizations, were in fact not spending contributions and other funds for research and the benefit of the people they were supposed to be helping, or even for the things they claimed, I lost a lot of my innocence. I cling to the hope that the Cystic Fibrosis chapters and their leadership are honest ("less than 5% for administration, the rest for research and patients), that the organizations for diabetes research are above board, that American Cancer Society truly is using those contributions as they say they are. I pray that others are. But the rainbows are forever stripped from my eyes, and I can't totally believe any group is able to lay it on the line, all cards on the table, all uses of funds above reproach.

This is a sad testimonial.

Aimee.. In 1977 we lost a 19 year old son to Cystic Fibrosis. Yes we received some help with his Meds but feel like more could have been done to help us. I believe (hopefully) more is being done for the children today. Some are living a lot longer. We had our son a lot longer than most did back then. My brother lost a daughter with CF that only lived to be 5. This was long before our Jimmy was even born. They have come a long ways with it since my son & niece died with it. I never knew my niece but we sure lost a great son.

Oh, my dear, you were there before I was! Your son probably made it possible for my precious daughter to live to the age of 13. So little was known about it when she was born in 1966, and the treatments were so primitive and so ineffective. It was even more so when your dear son was born. I am grateful to you and your family for your sacrifices.

We had to fight the docs to even get a correct diagnosis, and she almost died before it was admitted that the tests I fought for had indeed been positive. A vain doctor had suppressed the results, and when she was at the point of death at 10 months another doctor told me about the positive finding. Laura wasn't expected to live through the night, but somehow did, and treatment was begun the next morning. A wonderful woman from some office I don't even remember came to me and told me not to worry about the charges, it would all be paid for by people who wanted to use us for research. Of course, you know the rest, we all submitted to tests of our body fluids, all of them, and samples of our skin, hair, fingernails, everything imaginable. We experimented with all sorts of drugs, probably the same ones your son was using. We had cumbersome equipment, including the mist tent and saline solution with propylene glycol. We went to the hospital and labs and doctor appointments until it seemed we lived on a conveyor belt which always ran past those offices.

But Laura was able to be a Brownie, a Girl Scout, went to CF camp several years, and in general lived a lot in her few years. She died in 1979, and I think of her every single day. I am eternally indebted to your son and your family and others who helped us to have those precious years.

One of my daughters is on the board of directors of the San Antonio chapter, and actively raises funds all year, in addition to assisting with organizing the largest fund raiser and attending their various events like a tower climb and a race. Her husbands company always buys a table at Gala, then she "sells" places to their friends and associates. I can't bring myself to get close to the children, but one of them, a young woman who has now had two transplants and is in her 20s, just worked herself under my skin before I knew what was happening. Her prognosis is guarded, as you can imagine, but she never fails to show up and speak to Gala attendees. I always have to be prepared with a purse full of hankies, it just tears me up to see her gasping for breath but determined to help others.

Thank you for sharing with me.

Aimee your story sounds so much like ours.. mist tent & all.
I read a story in the parade magazine & went to the Dr with it..he was then 9 months old.. he said I read too much. Finally on one of his many trips to the hospital they did a sweat test by putting his hand in a plastic bag BUT he laid his hand on the bed 1st & it came out negative..I even took him in the office several times with SALT in his hair but he ignored it.. this went on till he was 8 years old & by this time seeing a different Dr. By this time the clinic had formed at the childrens hospital & I insisted he be tested again this time the newer way. The clinic told us they didn't know how it was missed as high as the salt was. He also did a lot of things your daughter did including camp which he also was a junior councelor a couple of years. He received the application for the next summer when he was in the hospital on his last trip there.

Sugar, you don't even know how similar our stories are!

When I was pregnant with Laura, her sister, 20 months old, drank some insecticide left on the table by a careless exterminator. She was rushed to the hospital 30 miles away, and survived with nothing worse than scarred lungs and pneumonia from coughing up the poison. But her symptoms persisted so long. One Sunday, I picked up a paper and read an article about triplet boys with CF. Oddly enough, when I had been expecting the 20 month old, I had read an article about a young woman with CF in our community in Baton Rouge, describing her treatment and the disease symptoms. So when I read it again, I naturally applied it to this coughing daughter and remembered that I had read it before. I asked for a test, which was negative. So after Laura was born, I remembered the symptoms again, including that unmistakable odor of the stool and the "grandma's kiss" with the salt on the forehead, along with the breathing sound like a little whistle had been swallowed. I was using the same pediatrician, and he really was put out with me when I told him I read it. He shouted, "I wish you people would stop trying to give someone everything you read about in Reader's Digest." Needless to say, he wouldn't run the tests for Laura after I had asked for them for the other child just months earlier. I went to several doctors, had the tests, and got the wave-off and horse laughs.

Laura was ten months old when the hospital's records were revealed to me, showing the positive test months earlier.

When she was in and out of consciousness during her last trip to the hospital, she asked me "have those papers come for me to fill out for camp?" I don't think she knew what she was saying, but it was time for them. Camp was such a big deal for her. The papers arrived in the mail on the day of her funeral.

These stories are unbelievably horrifying!!!!! How terribly sad!!! I cannot imagine how difficult and painful those times in your lives were for you!!! God bless your strength and resolve. You both are an inspiration to us all.

Aimee.. Jimmy never really caughed a lot until he was about 8 & then it seemed to never stop. I believe that is one thing that fooled the Dr but not me. He was aware of everything to the very end. The last words I heard him say were. "what is my blood gasses?" I guess U did the clapping too.. the last few years we did it 4 times a day.. his treatments took at least 4 hours a day. You are lucky though that U only had one with it for as U know there is a 1 in 4 chance all could have has it. He watch 2 close friends die before he did. He never complained but did write poems about death. I let some get away from me but have a lot still. When we were cleaning out his room I removed a drawer for some reason & under it was a poem about suicide. It ended with going to hell. That shows that the thought entered his head somewhere along the way. He knew from 8 on that he would not live long. A big mouth CF person told him.. No 8 year old should have been told that young. This was the president of the local chapter (Norfolk, VA) who had lost a G/daughter.

Oh, how parallel! This is almost unbelievable. Laura heard an insensitive pediatrician say she would not live past 7, and the summer she was seven she was in the hospital for two weeks. I didn't realize what was happening at the time, but once when she was in x-ray she coughed, couldn't seem to get her breath and turned gray. She grabbed me and gasped "Mommy, please don't let me die!" She became unconscious as I held her, but spontaneously revived seconds later. I know now that she suffered respiratory arrest. That was one of her more serious illnesses, probably because she had contracted pseudomonas during a wash out in Houston. But she recovered and had some relatively good years, during which she would tell people, in a matter of fact tone, "I'm on borrowed time. I have to make the most of it." The distinctive cough was always there, and would draw attention. Many times people would offer advice, like "give her (fill in the blanks) and that cough will clear right up." No amount of explaining that it was necessary for her to cough and she took medicines to make her cough, was ever enough to stop the advice givers. Laura and I finally learned to just thank them and get rid of them, then laugh about it. Once a kind old lady in the Dallas airport dug around in her purse and produced a fuzzy, tattered lozenge, and Laura accepted it, thanked her and then giggled her head off about its condition as soon as we were out of sight. Oh, my, that girl could giggle, and did!

Yes, we clapped, and the entire family went to Houston for training in draining the lobes and bronchial tree. We had the "boom boom machine" after 1972, but I still preferred to use my hands. I used whichever she preferred at any given time. All of my kids knew how to position her and how to give therapy. We had the nebulizer for treatment and the heat exchanger for her tent.

Laura made so many friends, a trait I think is common among CF kids. She had one, a woman about 32, who was absolutely amazing considering the extent of her disease. One day a mutual friend came to tell us that the CF friend had been struck by a Mack truck and killed. She had brought Laura one of the woman's favorite "hospital" gifts, a purple yarn octupus, to remember their friend by. Laura remarked, "well, CF didn't get her, it took a Mack truck." She was encouraged by her friend's plan to marry and have a child, almost unthinkable for a CF woman.

As kids arrived for camp every year, it was heart wrenching to note how many didn't make it back, how many didn't survive the year. Laura always contacted the families when we heard through the doctors and therapists that one had been lost.

Her therapists were her friends, as were many nurses and some doctors. She treated them as contemporaries, and didn't hesitate to scold a nurse who was about to put in an IV with her nails dirty. Not too long ago, I was getting an MRI and the tech seemed familiar. After a lot of puzzling attempts to place each other, I mentioned that my daughter had died in that hospital. He snapped his fingers and said, "I know your daughter! Laura Cowan! I was her therapist when she was here!" That, after 23 years! He had retrained and was no longer in IT, which used to mean Inhalation Therapy, of course, not internet technology.

((((((Aimee and Sugar))))))Jo

Aimee.. it sounds like U had a lot more help & support than we did. I guess most of the time we just moved along like a healthy family but sure wasn't. Our main goal then was keeping Jimmy well as possible & did it mostly alone. I had 4 kids & all 3 surviving ones are on disability. One son 19 months younger is very retarded & been in a institution since he was 5. We had this going on along with Jimmy. We just got where we couldn't handle him as he ate EVERYTHING he got his hands on & still does. He has had many surgerys to remove thing from his stomach like a piece of his sneekers heel & a plastic bag.. He is supposed to be on a one to one but as U can see isn't. Anyway that's another story. My son (another son..I had 3) who is 33 now lives in my house in VA. He takes so many meds for different mental problems & can't work. Bipolar is just one of them. He is my biggest concern now as I don't know what will become of him when I'm gone. We talk almost every day. My 48 year old daughter raised a family but now is on disability for depression. She makes more now than she did working with Social Security & disability from work. I don't tell many people this & guess I'm telling the whole world now but New Years Eve 1991 my late husband took his own life. I don't even know why. He got real depressed near the end. Life has not been easy but want it just as long as God will give it to me. I try not to dwell on the problems & dwell on the good things I have in life.. It does creep out some like now.
Guess I kinda hijacked my own thread *LOL*

This message was edited Sunday, Jul 27th 5:10 PM

Sugar, I started to apologize for hijacking the thread way back there, but then I realized you and I had hijacked your thread. It was good to share with someone so much of the deeper me. I don't always let people into that compartment of my heart, but somehow, like you, I let all of DG in. I meant to say thanks to all who have tolerated us thus far, and to Celia and now Jo for empathizing. I think one reason I don't share this is I can't stand when someone learns of these terribly painful and personal things and then tries to fix it, to brush it off with some remark that is really to make themselves feel better, like "well, that's all past" or "she's in a better place".

I agree, it sounds like you really had a far more difficult road to travel than I. Even though I became single when Laura was only two, with number seven on the way, I was fortunate to live in Texas where so much help is available. The only other problem with my seven is my son, born when Laura was two and a half, who is ADHD and diabetic. Even with that, I was fortunate, because I worked in records at a MHMR facility and was in touch with every agency needed to get a diagnosis when little was known about the disorder. Some school officials gave me a ration of you know what about his meds as well as Laura's, but my pediatrician interceded and basically squashed them. If I had been in your shoes, I would probably have gone into a dark closet and never emerged. Instead, I was so busy working two or three jobs and going to school at the same time, I was forced to rely on medical people, bosses and even boyfriends to run interference. Often, problems were solved before I knew they were there. Not to say I had none, I had a full measure, but somehow things always seemed to work out, someone appeared with the answers I needed or problems were like tropical storms, wearing out before they could cause major damage. Through it all, my kids and I were a team, the only thing that saved us.

I am sooooo sorry for your losses. I wish we could have met way back then and been supportive of each other. I could have used a friend many times, someone who understood about the importance of mucus thinning and sleeping in a hospital chair before parents were allowed to stay, to be sure fatal mistakes weren't made by staff. Someone who would sit with me when I didn't have words, when I just needed to hear someone say I wasn't a bad parent because I couldn't be everywhere at once. Heck, someone to pick up a pizza or hamburgers for my kids when I couldn't get home in time, or pick them up after school because a boss had ordered me to remain late. I would have gladly traded favors.

I hope this isn't depressing to those reading it. I don't indulge in a lot of moping or self-pity, and I know Sugar doesn't, we can't afford to go there for a second or we might get trapped. It's a chapter of the book everyone tells me I should write, or one of those books. It's a sharing between two mothers, women who have been through the hottest fires life has to offer, and maybe a purging of some pent up pain. Okay, I choke up when I relate and relive parts of it, but don't worry about those tears. They are healing tears, a part of the grieving necessary for every parent who has lost a child, every parent who has seen a child cruelly stricken by disabilities. Life hurts, and we try to sidestep it sometimes, but we can never give up. Others are watching and will learn, for better or worse, from our handling of our appointed tasks.

Dear Sugar, know that my heart is wide open to you. I admire you, am in awe of your wisdom and your endurance. I shall keep you in my prayers for every day of the rest of my life, that those burdens you bear because of your children's lot will ease dramatically, that miracles will come for you and them. Again, I am deeply indebted to you and your precious son for your contributions. I firmly believe he is still with us, as is Laura, and that they had a hand in our finding each other through such a strange coincidence.

Aimee and Sugar, now I know how you got to be so wise. I deeply admire your strength and your courage. I don't know how many people could have survived what you two have without becoming bitter or hopeless. Thank you for allowing me to share your experiences - it reminds me how much I have to be grateful for.

Aimee.. I couldn't stay at the hospital as much as I would like to have cause for 12 of those 19 years I had another child also with special needs. I was lucky to be a stay at home mom even if it meant doing without. On a policeman salary there wasn't much left over.. we didn't even have a car for years..just couldn't afford one. I did finally get a little stay at home job answering the phone & radio for some Bondsmen..that got us a car & a little left over. After 16 years I lost that when they started letting so many out of jail without bonds. By then my husband was making a decent salary when the city & county merged. I have been remarried for 3 years now & happy. I just wish my 33 year old son was doing better but that's another story. I look around in the world & see people so much worse off. Look at you.. at least I didn't have to make the walk alone like you did for so long.
Aimee U need to write a book as U are a great writer.

I am so touched by these stories - and so thankful for my 2 healthy children and 5 healthy grandchildren - we have truly been blessed.

To all of you who have read this so far, all I can say is thanks. So often, it makes people uncomfortable to hear about the deaths of children, and they don't know what to say so they try to squelch it and go to something more cheerful. But this is a natural thing, something that happens to humans. In some ways, I think it's easier for us, the parents, than for others, and I found myself comforting others when Laura died. You all decided to open your hearts and share this with me and Sugar, and I appreciate the company. It's good to have this part of our lives known here among our friends, just as it's good to share happier news. You have been angels unaware.

Sugar, I think I had an easier time walking alone instead of having a mate to complicate things. Oh, there were times when I wished there was someone to talk about it, someone to hold me while I cried. I probably leaned on my other kids too much. But I didn't have to worry about the mental state of a mate or try to be up for him, and I didn't have another special needs child until six months after Laura died and her younger brother was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. We were always broke, or barely solvent, but somehow we were happy in spite of it. We had the usual family rows, and once I even kicked two of my boys out for constant fighting. There were problems and scenes like normal people experience. I was terrified of making bad mistakes. I crashed and burned every time someone had an accident or ran away from home or used drugs. Still, we had a lot of love, and my kids now tell me that's what they remember. They still bicker, each one sure he's better than the rest. My oldest is going to be 48 in December, the youngest will be 35 next week. Three boys, four girls. They can drive me crazy still, but I don't have the worries you do. Bless your heart, I wish I could share some of it and lighten your days.

Thanks for the compliment, my DIL nags me to write but I don't really know how or where to start. Maybe someday I will write about such things as we have discussed here. I would like very much to write something that would be useful and comforting to other parents who must deal with chronically ill children. But I think that has probably already been done. Maybe my purpose is to communicate here. I am pleased to think any of you find it inspiring.

Aimee I don't believe some things can be said too many times. Write!!! I beg my DH to put some of his stories on tape as he really led a interesting life & is a great story teller. He has started reading a lot of western books & then retells them to me. I enjoy that as I don't read that much(except for this screen) As for writing he said he must have gone fishing the day they had spelling. My spelling is not good but I proof read at his request almost everything he posts.
You are saying all the things I'd like to say to the readers here & doing a much better job at it than I ever could.
My family isn't & wasn't as supportive as yours..wish they were. My daughter was good with Jimmy & took him on a lot of her dates to get him out. She even said she had as much or more fun when he was along. Until he got in with the CBers in the early 70s he never got to go much but had many friends. He had home bound teachers several years but was allowed to go to school 1/2 day in the afternoon a couple of days a week when he felt well enough.
My youngest son is a different story. She resents him greatly & he really needs her. He did have a lot more than she did but things were better when he came along. There is also 15 years difference in their ages.
It is amazing how different people treat others when the handicap is mental & not physical. My #3 son has probably put more grey hair in my head than the others all put together. Again that is another story I won't get into.
Aimee thanks again for saying the things I want to say & don't know how. I see no need of repeating them in my feeble way as U have said them so well. {{{HUGS}}}

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{all of ya'll }}}}}}}}}}}}}}

and another hug from here (((((Sugar and Aimee)))))

The hugs and sweet words are balm for my wounds!

Sugar, I so agree about the different treatments, and it's so unfair. Having worked in the schools and agencies for those with mental problems of various kinds, and being a staffer who couldn't resist some needy clients, I find it painful to see someone turn against them. Many times, someone who is having difficulty is a precious and gifted soul, but can't relate in the normal manner. I imagine how starved they must be for touch, for kindness and warmth and understanding, and I am like putty. I honestly believe we all have our purpose for living, and I don't want to be guilty of denying anyone the full human experience.

I'm so glad your daughter took her brother with her. I hope they all are able to evolve into the type of adults who are more joy than sorrow. In fact, I hope that for my own, too. Some of them seem to be taking their own sweet time about getting it right.

Wow what a thread this one is! I am moved to tears, then smiles, then tears, then complete admiration of parents who have to go through such things as this. Again I am so glad to have "met" you, Aimee and to "meet" you Sugar as I know you are making a big difference in the attitudes of people here at DG who will read this thread. God Bless you both and your families!

May the good Lord smile down on your forever and keep you in His arms.