X-Message-Number: 1214
Date: 21 Sep 92 21:55:15 EDT
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: CRYONICS

 
Re the Alcor fee structure: 
 
This discussion is becoming muddy, because there are two 
problems involved, but they are not being discussed 
separately. 
 
FIRST PROBLEM: How to discourage last-minute sign-ups by 
terminal patients, which will exceed Alcor's logistical 
abilities if they become too common. 
 
SECOND PROBLEM: How to pay for remote stand-by, which can 
sometimes be ruinously expensive.
 
Here's my suggestion for coping with the first problem: When 
a member signs up, (s)he pays Alcor a substantial "security 
deposit"--something like $10,000. At the end of the first 
year of membership, if the member is still alive, Alcor gives 
the money back. 
 
Here's my suggestion for coping with the second problem: 
simply increase the cost of neuro and whole-body suspension 
by, say, $5,000. Since this is paid by life insurance in most 
cases, it would not impose an onerous burden on members. The 
annual cost increase would be trivial. True, some people will 
end up effectively subsidizing the suspension costs of 
others, because some people will go down quickly and others 
will require a longer standby. But this is already the 
situation, and I see no way around it. 
 
The advantage shared by these two proposals is that they are 
simple. As soon as we start messing around with sliding 
scales of membership dues and other ingenious notions, the 
Alcor fee structure starts looking like the U.S. tax code. 
And once you start amending it, it will never seem quite 
fair, so there are bound to be amendments to the amendments, 
and the people at Riverside will waste too much time trying 
to administer it. 
 
The disadvantage shared by my proposals is that they cost 
people money. But really, this is inevitable. After all, the 
objective is to make up for a loss that Alcor has experienced 
in recent suspensions. I appreciate Keith's point of view 
about cutting costs rather than raising revenues, but cost-
cutting along the lines that he suggests will take a while, 
as equipment is set up in the various chapters and people are 
trained. In the meantime, the money has to come from the 
members, one way or another. Rather than trying to sugar-coat 
the pill in various ways, why not be blunt and simple? 
 
--Charles Platt

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