Jeff,

I know where you are coming from. After almost 4 years I finally paid off the loan that I took to get HUCB. Money that could have been much better spent on a mini-van. Water under the bridge.

ALS is a scam artist's dream come true. People get hit like a hammer with this little-known deadly, paralyzing with no treatment and little hope for one disease all in the matter of months. The first year is almost certainly the most likely time that PALS will be taken. New PALS including myself have a simple logic. There is nothing out there. The longer I wait, the worse I'll be. I'm not going to be here in a few years and in a lot shorter time, I'm going to be paralyzed. I need to ACT NOW!

And so far, what that leads to is to be thousands of dollars poorer, still with ALS and a nagging feeling that a perfectly healthy SOB is living the good life off of your life savings and hard work.

It might have some benefit to warn PALS but in reality its very difficult. To tell new PALS to hold off is in their mind is to subtly tell them what their doctor has already done so which is to accept the inevitable. That is never going to be acceptable to new PALS. So every years the sharks will seek their prey.