X-Message-Number: 4865
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 02:48:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: current prices

 
 A copy of the April 1995 issue of Cryocare Report recently found its
 way into my hands. I was greatly surprised by one item in the following
 list of Cryocare/CI prices. Perhaps the reader could guess what that
 was? 

 Neuro Patients: 
  $40,000 Standby, transport, perfusion, cooldown
    1,000 One-time Cryocare administration fee
    2,000 Independant Patient Care Foundation admin fee
    2,500 Cryocare long-term administration fee
      500 Transport to Michigan
   10,000 Minimum funding for Cryonics Institute
      500 Reserve for emergency transport to
            another storage company
   12,500 Contingency for neuro storage elsewhere
   69,000 Total

 Whole-Body patients: 
  $42,500 Standby, transport, perfusion, cooldown
    1,000 One-time Cryocare administration fee
    2,000 Independant Patient Care Foundation admin fee
    2,500 Cryocare long-term administration fee
    2,000 Transport to Michigan
   28,000 Minimum funding for Cryonics Institute
    4,500 Reserve for emergency conversion to neuro and
            transport to another storage company
   12,500 Contingency for neuro storage elsewhere
   95,000 Total

    The one item that I found surprising was the 10,000 neuro minimum
 funding for the Cryonics Institute, when CI does not itself offer a
 neuro option to its own members! I am told the reason CI does not want
 to become directly involved with neuros is the negative publicity
 associated with chopping off and storing people's heads. In this regard
 I would like to mention that when I toured a university anatomy museum
 some years ago I did not find viewing a human brain in a jar as being
 disturbing in any way. However I could not claim to a similar degree of
 equanimity after viewing half of a human face. My suggestion to CI is
 therefore to consider offering brain freezing as its neuro option so as
 to avoid the unpleasantness associated with storage of entire heads. 
    I think offering a low cost ($10,000) approach to cryonics might
 prove to increase its popularity rather more than most cryonicists
 might expect. The most interesting thing about this price point is that
 many people already have at least $10,000 worth of life insurance as
 part of their company sponsored benefit packages. Thus signing up for
 cryonics might involve only a little paperwork to make CI the
 beneficiary of an already existing death benefit. The total actual cost
 to sign up would be only a one time CI membership fee of $1,250 for
 singles or $1,875 for working couples. This is less than even being
 buried in a cemetary would cost! If this is handled well CI could stand
 to benefit from an enormous increase in its business, with overflow to
 Cryocare and perhaps other companies that offer upgrade paths from this
 base product. 

 Any comments?


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