Well I talked to a friend of mine the other day and I was alarmed to discover that he is now required to use his CPAP at least four hours nightly, nearly every night for the rest of his life, or he could lose his commercial drivers license, (CDL).
He's not an over-the-road truck driver he only drives in the local area. Unlike me, he has a much milder case of sleep apnea and he's perfectly able to function without using his cpap machine if he chooses to. I have to admit, I'm feeling this hit and taking it personally myself as he came to me when his sleeping issues began and I encouraged him to seek out treatment from his doctor. Now, it seems he'll be forever stamped with a sleep apnea stigma on his CDL and the powers that be will walk all over his rights by compelling him to submit to periodic data collection and review, as well as a doctor's inspection if he desires to retain his commercial driving status.
I am so completely enraged by this, it just reeks of the kind of injustice, political and corporate greed that is the essence why I put this site together in the first place. This is why drug testing in the work place is bad, this is why seat belt laws are bad.
You take an argument, make it sound perfectly logical and rational, you say its for safety reasons, and every bit of it is absolutely right. Except for the fact that it just completely tramples basic human rights, privacy, personal freedom and happiness. And usually, someone, somewhere is making a buck off it.
This is why I hate drug testing requirements and laws in the workplace. Just as some people say cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana are "gateway" drugs to the harder street drugs (which I think is crap), but thats what some people say, I look at drug testing as a "gateway" requirement that leads to more and more reductions in the individuals personal freedoms here in America.
And now here they've taken another step beginning with truck drivers and I'm sure if this kind of shit is allowed to continue, it won't stop with them. Now, if you're diagnosed with sleep apnea, you are required have a computerized machine hooked up to you at least four hours nightly which assists your breathing while you sleep and also monitors and records data from these sessions which you must submit to your work and/or government agencies to prove you are using the machine properly.
Additionally, if you're not currently diagnosed with sleep apnea but through measuring your Body Mass Index (BMI) and the circumference of your neck, if you any of those numbers put you in an "at-risk" category, you will be required to submit to a doctor's examination to determine if you have sleep apnea.
The article I put above discusses the cost to the truck driving industry alone at 5.25 billion which will be paid on an individual basis by medical coverage and more so by the truck driver since in many cases they don't have adequate medical coverage. For reference, my own sleep study and cpap machine cost was around $5000...that was several years ago. Prices have risen since then, my friend he owns a machine which cost twice what mine did, it rings in at $4000. So many of our rules and laws are absolutely right, yet absolutely wrong. Its like communism or socialism, what a great idea until you put it into practice then it just ruins so many lives and entire countries.
I get so tired seeing people, good people, actually defend these types of draconian safety measures which if you examine them beyond their surface you find corruption at every turn. People don't realize that corporations in the medical industry will lobby and monetarily support politicians and other entities who help get requirements like this passed as a law or as rule. For the corporation, they are just serving their own interests, invest millions lining the right pockets, make billions on doctor visits and equipment costs.
The true cost of operating our country in this manner is too great!
- As the attached articles states, the recommendations made are geared towards profits for the Sleep Apnea industry and ignore many of the real safety concerns. That fact alone raises a red flag to me saying someone is getting a lot of money to make these suggestions which will boost profits without any regard to respecting an individuals rights or privacy.
- It needs to be said at least once, No Job, No Government Agency should EVER require anyone to do what is being asked. It is wrong, even if its for the right reasons. Being forced to submit to expensive doctor visits, sleep labs, equipment costs and collecting data on your sleep patterns is appallingly invasive to personal privacy. I don't care how many lives someone says it might save. I'd honestly rather take my chances on the road with possible sleepy truck drivers, than for all of us to suffer the alternative. The only way to ensure no truck driver is ever too sleepy or too fatigued to drive is for the government and their work too exercise 100% control over them and control every single aspect of their lives, forcing people to wear CPAPs and collecting data puts us one step closer to a police state.
- Accepting practices like this as commonplace opens up so many avenues of backhanded descrimination of individuals for jobs. Employers will be much less likely to higher people considered to be even a moderate to lower risk of having certain medical conditions for insurance concerns alone. Age discrimination also comes into play as everyone tends to develop some kind of condition eventually. You start out requiring more stringent rules for drivers with diabetes and sleep apnea, but where does it end? It doesn't. More and more conditions will be added, pretty soon you have people not going to the doctor for treatment, or visiting other countries when feasible for fear of having an undesirable medical history that might disqualify them for a job.
The Medical Industry's Sleep Apnea money racket.
What really irks me about sleep apnea is just how common it really is and thats scary because the medical industry has put out high equipment and doctor's visit costs for something that requires little intelligent care after the fact. I basically diagnosed myself with sleep apnea, I read about it, I knew I had it, but without a doctor's prescription, you're not allowed to purchase a machine...and thus the nearly criminal process of supporting the medical industry begins...
- General Practitioner referral to a pulmonary doctor
- GP Office Visit $120
- Doctor asks you some blatantly obvious questions, a burger king employee could've successfully completely the doctor's tasks at this point, he refers you to a pulmonary (lung) doctor.
- Pulmonary Doctor Visit
- Office Visit $120
- Doctor Schedules a sleep study for you. Generally, they see you twice once before the sleep study and then again afterwards to go over the results with you. I actually never met my doctor, he was too busy with his "real" patients so I saw his Nurse Practitioner.
- Sleep Study
- Spend the night in a sleep lab $2000-$3000
- If you have good medical coverage, doctors love to schedule this things for you at least every 3-5 years just to make sure everything is going ok. Which when you think about it is fairly unnecessary since you know whether or not you're getting a good night's rest. There are somehow exceptions, so why not pay a team of technicians to monitor you for a night and pay someone's wages for a month.
- Pulmonary Doctor Visit
- Office Visit
- The technicians at the sleep lab know exactly what is wrong with your sleeping, if anything, however don't expect them to tell you unless you make it clear you're only asking informally and you verbally absolve them of any possible litigation should they tell you something in error. Otherwise, you have to wait to find out on your next visit to the lung doctor. From here, he'll supply you with a list of medical supply companies which offer cpap equipment. Again, if you want any intelligent input as to which company might be better, or what most people like to use, you must first absolve whoever you're speaking with of any possible litigation and emphasize that you are temporarily suspending the office visit and that you're only asking his/her informal opinion on which they service provider they prefer so as not to make them liable to possible prosecution for showing a preference towards any one particular company. Its worth all that though, if you can get an honest answer from them since they obviously hear comments from patients all the time and they know who gives really good service and doesn't try and gouge every cent they can.
- Medical Supply Company
- Consultation and equipment demonstration.
- Equipment Costs, CPAP unit $2000-$4000 and up and initial supplies. Usually even if you've got great health insurance you'll still end up paying several hundred dollars up front and pay monthly until at least half the cost of the unit is paid for.
- Medical Supply Company On-Going Parts and Supplies.
- Ongoing Costs Masks $200-$500, plus another $100-$150 for hoses, filters, distilled water tanks, etc for other semi-disposable parts that must be replaced every 3-12 months for proper maintenance.
Now I will grant you that all the parts, the motor and the materials used are top notch quality, but this is just like a much more elaborate inflated-expense business model that what you find with computer printers for example. Buy the printer for $30, then spend $50 on the ink every time you need a refil when it all actually costs the company much less. I really shake my head every time I see something like this, I understand the economical need for price structures to support professionals in various industries, but in this case, the corruption involved is completely ridiculous. By requiring a doctor's order to use this equipment it forces a monopoly process which inflates the actual cost of treating sleep apnea I would estimate nearly ten-fold. $600 Vs. $6000.
