Ch 12 Sly falls out of bed and I learn that this is a frequent occurrence

Primo: My dad fell out of bed again.

Me: Again?

Primo: This has happened at least three or four times in the past year.

Me: That’s awful! What’s going on?

Primo: I think alcohol is involved.

Me: I’m. Shocked.

Primo: He falls and my mom can’t lift him up.

Me: Nope. Your dad weighs what – 260? – and your mom, as she tells me, is only 119.

Primo: So they have to call the paramedics.

Me: They call an ambulance to pick your drunk dad up?

Primo: How else is he supposed to get up?

Me: I don’t know! Are they at least paying the ambulance bill?

Primo: I didn’t ask. Doesn’t Medicare pay for that?

Me: If they do, they should put in an exclusion that they won’t pay for drunk falls.

Primo: He is going to ask his doctor to write him a prescription for a hospital bed.

Me: You can’t buy one without a prescription? It’s just a bed with rails on the side, right? Let me look – yeah, you can find them on craigslist. I don’t think you need a prescription to buy one.

Primo: But if he gets a prescription, Medicare will pay for it.

Me: I don’t understand. Your parents can afford this kind of thing. It’s not even that expensive.

Primo: My dad thinks that if he pays his premiums, he should get any benefits coming to him.

Me: He has money for booze, for cable, for internet, for a gardener, and for a maid – but he won’t pay for a solution to a problem he has created himself?

Primo: That’s my dad.