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? Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4865