A comment on health care

[dacjohns]

About a month ago I was doing something bad.




















I was eating those conversational hearts that we got on sale after Valentine's Day and I was biting down on them. I cracked a tooth as a result of it.

Now move forward in time about a month. I had been nursing that cracked tooth being careful what I ate and how I ate while waiting to get home so I could get it fixed. I had a dream where I was using a toothpick and the entire tooth came out and the gum was mostly healed where the tooth belonged.

Then last night while I was flossing my teeth part of my cracked tooth fell into the sink. Was the dream a premonition? Who knows.

Today I spent an hour on the telephone trying to find a dentist that would see me and take care of the tooth. I found out the most dentists in this area take Fridays off. Most dentists are so booked up that even in an emergency they can't see for four weeks or more.

I finally found a dentist. Really nice people in the office and a nice caring dentist. I think he will get my business in the future.


So my comment on health care. If health care reform will get us dentists that will see people on Fridays and see people with urgent dental care needs then I'm all for it.

 

[sylvie]

I hope the health care reform includes dentistry, and eye care, too.
Medicare doesn't even cover those services, except eye exams, so I don't see them being included in the initial offering.
Here is a link explaining dental:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicareDentalCoverage/

In addition, Medicare supplemental(GAP) insurance doesn't cover these services because Medicare doesn't.

I'd love to be pleasantly surprised.


I thought Sears Dental took walk ins. Glad you found someone!

 

[Big Daddy]

Is there such a thing as really good dental insurance? I had a plan where I work. It was around 30.00 a month for the family. It basically just covered check ups and fillings. I needed a root canal on a 3 root molar, an extraction of a broken molar where a crown fell off 30 years ago a crown on a molar that had a crown fall off but was still salvageable and one filling on an incisor. Total cost going through my insurance plan was 2100. The place I went which was Comfort Dental had a 300.00 insurance plan. With the cost of the pl;an and all the work it cost 1600. Needless to say I dropped the dental insurance.

I think it must be because almost everyone has some dental issues. So it's difficult to make money on an insurance plan. Can you imagine spending 50k to have all your teeth either replaced or modified for a beautiful smile? Don't think we'll see that on any health plans.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Dac--that happened to me last winter. ( I wasn't eating cinnamon hearts though--well, I was , but that is not what cracked my tooth ) I got into the dentist two days later, and I now have two new front teeth. (crowns). The appt was covered by OHIP, the crowns covered 80% by my dh's dental plan at work. (20% my own pocket)

I know it's very easy for me to take things like this for granted, but I never have a concern for medical or dental care or vision.

 

[me&thegals]

dacjohns--Thanks for bringing this up. It often gets missed in the discussions about healthcare but is so related to health.

We don't have dental insurance, so everything is out of pocket. We stretch our checkups out to every 2 years for the adults, once a year so far for the kids.

My husband and I have both had crowns put on and paid through the nose. Around here, dentists are quite awful about having workable office hours in the evenings or weekends. And most, if not all, don't accept Medicare and Medicaid or Badgercare (WI) patients. I've heard stories about people literally dying from dental infections that went body wide because of lack of treatment. It is quite shameful.

In our community, we are lucky enough (in a town of 2000) to have retired doctors, dentist and other providers who donate their time for a few afternoons each week to treat people who cannot get care otherwise. I bet it is a bit like the finger in the dike, though.

 

[enjoy the ride]

I wouldn't hold my breath over that one - most federal insurance plans don't cover any real amount of dental or vision unless you are lucky enough to have a specialized plan like the FBI or Diplomatic employees. And just try to find a dentist who accepts who is enrolled as a provider under any plan I ever had.
One of the things I wonder about is the cost of these proposed plans- will they really be affordable? I have looked at the plans for Federal employees on the websites and they cost a lot even though the government covers about 3/4's of the cost. If a person has to pay all of the cost, they will be pretty pricey.
The one thing they do have is clauses about not eliminating someone due to a pre-existing condition. As long as you pay your premiums, your coverage continues. So for people with real problems, they are a good deal.
But like everything else, mandated coverage for all workers will be required in order to even make it that affordable. I think it will be like social security taxes.
But what about the large number of workers for small businesses like restaurants? A lot of small businesses will be ecluded as it stands now. Does that mean that anyone working for them will not have health insurance? If so, we will see a huge boom in small businesses.

 

[dacjohns]

I was griping about not being able to find a dentist on short notice and ended up opening a big can of worms. That's OK though. It generated some good discussion.

I've been pondering this a little and remembered something from a class I took a long time ago. I think it was a nutrition class.

Dental or our mouths are at the base of our entire health. What and how we eat affects our health. If our mouth is not taken care of we cannot eat properly. If we don't eat properly the rest of our body is affected. Infections can spread as was mentioned earlier.

Why is it that something as basic as oral health is ignored when taking care of our oral cavity can have such positive affects on the rest of our health? Because we don't practice preventive medicine.

Another thing, how many health care professionals are in the business so they can care for people? How many are in the business so they can make lots of money and have three day weekends every week?

 

[Big Daddy]

That's a really good point. I never realized how much dental hygiene affects overall health. Yet your health plans don't over anything unless your in an accident and half your teeth get knocked out. Then they pay for wood replacements.

I think a lot of health care professionals are in it to help people. At lest the GP's. The specialist's seem more like they're in it for the bucks. At least the ones I have dealt with . I have an orthopedic surgeon that has done 2 knees from a horse kicking me and 3 surgeries on my right shoulder from a rota tor cuff tear and arthritis on my collarbone. He is a real nice guy and seems to be genuinely concerned, but he probably does 20 surgeries a week. He owns a surgical center with 5 other surgeons. It's attached to a hospital in case of major complications.

As for GP's. It seems like they are all in group practices now with some kind of management company running the show. Better have your questions all lined up for the 5 minutes the doctor gets to spend with you. GP's don't make that much compared to specialist's. So they must be in it because they care. I would say that Urologist's and Proctologist must care too. Either that or they make a lot of money.

 

[me&thegals]

I think that some of the connections between dental health and whole-body health are fairly new (like linking infections with embryonic health and heart disease) and that is why it is not as covered as other healthcare. I'm assuming that in the distant past dentistry was seen as more of a cosmetic thing than health related.

I generally assume goodwill from other people. When it comes to dentistry, though, their hours, their nonacceptance of poor people, it's hard to find it.

 

[enjoy the ride]

I was griping about not being able to find a dentist on short notice and ended up opening a big can of worms. That's OK though. It generated some good discussion.

Sorry I guess we all have health care on the brains right now. :/