Etoile

Some Deaf people do not feel comfortable with their English skills, and they feel that if it is a life and death situation then they want the information in their own language. Everybody is different, some people use paper and pen and some people don't like it.
I'm sorry you feel that having an interpreter at a doctor appointment would violate your privacy. You may not know this, but privacy is the single most important thing to interpreters. Anyone who violates a deaf person's privacy will NEVER work as an interpreter again, so nobody does anything like that. And this might come as a surprise, but interpreters also don't usually care about your doctor appointment. I know it is important to you, but to us it is just another day at work. We have our own lives and we are there to facilitate communication with the doctor and then we go home and live our own lives. So although you are concerned about privacy when there is an interpreter at the doctor's office, you really do not have a reason to worry because (1) it is against "interpreter law" for us to tell anything and also (2) we don't really care anyway.
I don't think anybody is trying to make money off deaf people using VRS. It's not free because the companies are giving it to you free...it's free because the government pays for it. VRS and text relay (IP/TTY) are both funded by the government. It is ALL paid for by taxpayers including VRS. Every American who has a phone line has a little charge on their bill every month for TRS, Telecommunications Relay Service. This includes VRS and text relay both! So even if you use VRS it is still paid for by the government...no matter what. The ADA does not allow the VRS companies to charge deaf people, the government HAS to pay for it!