Reply #6: I don't dispute this report...

[trayfoot]

and, I am not in the Medicare category, but if I had not had expensive back surgery in 1987 (at the age of 37), I would have been long dead! I had a problem called spondilolethisis (sp?) My lower back was broken. In '87, this was experimental surgery and only a couple doctors did it nation-wide. They fuse, decompress, put in plates and screws. It worked like a miracle for me! In 2005, I had to have it again to replace plates & screws, decompress again, clean out arthritis. What concerns me about these reports, they tend to stroke with a broad brush! There WILL be people who desperately need these kinds of surgeries to live or improve their quality of life. I'm all for the "less expensive" solution IF it is medically advisable. I would hate for people to not get these surgeries who are in as bad a shape as I was.