Pitohui:Go south of the border a fill or grill!!
This is a short interesting thread. I didn't see the PCintern on this thread but it is BOBOLICIOUS.
Enjoy the few quotes I have pulled or row on over to see the whole thing in its native state.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x73269Here is how it begins, Minerman moaning an groaning.
MineralMan (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-24-11 03:40 PM
Original message
On having a tooth extracted and single payer health care...
So, the gauze pad is out of my mouth as I start this thread. Yup, I went to the dentist and got a tooth pulled. It's not a really important one, and there are still plenty of teeth back there to chew my gruel. A couple of days of some gum pain and all that will be left is a gap. The gap won't show.
No big deal. Except that I could have kept the tooth. A root canal and a crown would have saved it. That wasn't happening, though. I don't have $2000 just hanging around to save a premolar. So out it came. The dentist said that he's pulling more teeth these days than doing crowns, and that my story was typical. Instead of $2000, I only had to put $144 on my credit card. It's the wrong time of the month to cough up that much in cash, especially since my 55 year old wife's health insurance payment has been raised to $906 per month. She has some preexisting conditions, so we can't look for a cheaper policy.
Now, had I been diligent about cleanings and dental visits, it probably would have been saved, too. I know that, but those visits aren't in the budget, either. Things have been very, very tight for the past couple of years, when those visits might have saved that tooth. Oh, well.
Now, if we had comprehensive health care in this country, on a single-payer, tax-supported basis, I'd still have my tooth. Even if the health care didn't cover dental expenses (which it should), I'd have been able to afford a visit or two to the dentist for a cleaning and examination and I would have a cheap amalgam filling in that tooth. But I didn't, so it's gone now. That's the fourth one gone in my 65 year, each because I could not afford to save it.
Medicare doesn't cover dental, either, so I'm out of luck.
Single-payer health care. Let's get it, so that everyone can afford to get their ailments treated, OK?
Lots of people claim they haven't seen a dentist in years. But anyone want to bet Bobo, who it has been rumored is homeless, gets hers for free??
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-24-11 03:57 PM
Response to Original message
8. Many still wouldn't have the coverage,... and would't have the extra money, as you say you would
I would hope that you would fight for dental coverage, even if that isnt' what YOU need... just because we are all in this together.
There are several volleys back and forth between Bobo and MinMan typical of what one has come to expect from these two adolescents.
And then we have this interesting piece of advice.
pitohui (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-24-11 05:38 PM
Response to Original message
7. well a few dentists need to go to jail, including yours, $2K for the job he quoted was theft
Edited on Thu Mar-24-11 05:39 PM by pitohui
for $2k you could have gone to mexico, saved the tooth, AND had a vacation
single payer has ****-all to do w. dentistry because apparently there is NO code of ethics among american dentists, if you assume that they're all thieves, you're only wrong about 1 percent of the time
your dentist pulled your tooth because he's a thief not because it should cost anywhere near $2K to get a root canal plus crown, sheesh
I have had plenty of dental done. The Navy didn't really help my situation much when they decided to upgrade my teeth to class 2 status. I actually ended up with a VA claim after I got out. I went for months to have the work they had done repaired.