Medicare would pay once you are on Coumadin for six months. However, you are too young, unless you are on Social Security Disability. The machines are around a grand, the strips are expensive also. And, it doesn't cut out the doctor. You call in the results to the machine people, they call the doctor, and he calls you. It's like an annuity for the medical people paid for by you.

There are several manufacturers, here's one:
http://ptinr.com/
ATP uses this one: http://www.coaguchekpatientservices.com/. In Europe they treat people like adults, they can bypass the doctor.

If your insurance covers it, switch to a NOAC. I switched to Eliquis, works great, no blood testing, no dietary issues, more effective than Coumadin.

The CoaguChek is great easy to use and the results are the same as at the doctor (he uses CoaguChek, too). Paul is right when he says its expensive if you have to pay for it yourself (our basic insurance over here only pays for a new machine every 5 years it also covers the cost of strips, about 72 per year which is good for weekly checks).

As far as Coumadin being less effective than a NOAC, I beg to differ. Coumadin is ONLY worse than NOACs if you are out-of-range!! As far as I know, all of the comparison studies Coumadin/NOACs the Coumadin in-range-time was about 60%, which, of course is anything other than optimal and could cause problems (and all of the studies wanted to prove that NOACs were superior). My in-range-time this year (starting Jan.) is 95% (one reading was 1.9 a week later it was back to 2.2). At the moment Im also taking Plavix so my doctor said my INR should be a little lower: between 2 and 2.5 until Im off the Plavix (in a week). It might be possible that you can lower the amount of NOAC in your blood to account for antiplatelets, I dont know; with Coumadin it is possible.

As far as dietary restrictions go thats nonsense. You fit the dosage to your lifestyle, not the other way around. I love and eat lots of broccoli, parsley, spinach, lettuce imagine all of the vitamins and nutrients you would be missing out on if you cut them from your diet!

Then there is the bleeding antidote thingy. NO ONE wants a bleed and thank goodness they dont happen very often, but if they do

I am careful, conscientious and extremely happy with being able to check ANYTIME I want and took a course so I also know how to regulate the amount (dont have to be a rocket scientist for sure). It gives me a sense of security and freedom. Its really too bad you cant do that in the States imagine all of the money that could be saved! It could be that the doctors there dont want their patients controlling and regulating because they are covering their rear-ends sue-factor.

I hope this helps,
atp

Thank you so much for you help paul and across the , my INR is about 2.2 average .

kind regards