{{ PORTLAND, Ore.—The rental market here is so depressed that something almost unthinkable is now commonplace: Six-figure earners are paying some of the same rents as lower-income residents who qualify for subsidized housing.
Market rents in Portland have stagnated at the same time that rent limits for government-subsidized affordable apartments have risen. That means rents for affordable housing are growing faster than the prices for market-rate apartments. Rarely has the city seen such a narrow price gap between market-rate and affordable units.
The trend has produced unexpected outcomes for lower-income renters like Ruth Haddox. She spent months sleeping on her sister’s couch last year before putting her name on an affordable-housing wait list. A single mother with three children and no job at the time, she expected to be a shoo-in for a low-income apartment. She heard nothing for days.
Weeks went by, then months. More than a year later, Haddox has a new job at a doughnut shop and is renting a $1,600 three-bedroom home that she found on an apartment listings site.
The rent isn’t capped but it is around the price of some of the city’s subsidized apartments. The average rent of an income-restricted three-bedroom in the Portland metropolitan area hovers around $1,800, according to Yardi Matrix. Haddox’s new place didn’t require months of paperwork or administrative bottlenecks. She applied and moved within a week.
“I couldn’t wait anymore,” Haddox said. “This was way easier because the market had gone down.” }}
Actually the 15 step stairs has only made me stronger. I’m now outperforming the Roboleg, being able to ascend the stairs “leg over leg”. You’re only supposed to be able to do that with a motorized knee, which my leg lacks.
It has a bunch of electronics that makes it easier to maintain your balance. You are at much greater fall risk with a simple mechanical knee, which is what most Medicare beneficiaries get. If you’re on Medicare Advantage, they’ll try to give you a peg leg without a swinging knee.
The only difference between my leg (C Leg 4) and the $140,000 (Genium 4) is the motorized knee and the fact that the Genium 4 is certified to survive immersion in salt water, so you can go surfing with it.
Medicare considers the Genium to be a “recreational device” and won’t cover it. I’m lucky that the C-Leg 4 even has “golf mode”.
{{ However, broader data show that advanced microprocessor-controlled knees (MPKs) like the C-Leg are given to only a small fraction of Medicare amputees:
Low overall prosthesis rate: Only about 25% to 30% of new above-knee (transfemoral) amputees receive any prosthetic leg and knee at all. [1]
Basic mechanical knees dominate: Of the minority who do receive a prosthesis, the vast majority are prescribed basic mechanical or non-microprocessor knees rather than advanced computerized ones. [1]
Strict functional requirements: Medicare restricts reimbursement based on functional mobility ratings called K-levels. Historically, only high-functioning K3 and K4 ambulators qualified for microprocessor knees. While Medicare expanded coverage to include qualifying K2 limited community ambulators, strict prior authorization, documentation rules, and high costs mean that actual utilization of specific models like the C-Leg 4 remains low relative to the total population of above-knee amputees. [1, 2, 3]
