I try to avoid screeds in this journal...
...but here is some food for thought concerning single payer healthcare.
I went to see the dentist today. I did this only because I have visible, jet black cavities on some of my teeth. These cavities are the result of Japan's non-fluorinated water + the fact that the last time I visited a dentist was five years ago.
Why did I allow five years to pass between visits? Why, because I could not afford dental insurance in the United States. Which is why the total for the aforementioned previous visit came out to about $6,000, and that pretty much made me rethink even considering getting my teeth cleaned unless it looked like they were about to fall out of my mouth, weighted down with dental plaque.
Anyway, the clinic I visited today was as space age (if not moreso) as any dentist's office I have visited Stateside. We're talking clean, bright, and airy, with state-of-the-art flat screen plasma tv monitors on which the dentist showed me my x-rays and dental chair with a little sensor under the paper cup that automatically refilled it for me after I rinsed.
I had my x-rays; then the dentist poked around in my mouth while two assitants took notes. "Hm," he said. "I don't see anything too bad here, but I have to warn you that this visit is going to be expensive, as it's your first time at the office and we have no records for you."
"How expensive?" I asked him in trepidation, thinking about the $400 I had just withdrawn from my postal account that morning.
"Thirty dollars," he said, with enough gravity to suggest that most Japanese patients would consider $30 a hefty sum for a trip to the dentist.
I assured him this would not be a problem.
We then discussed the cavities. They will cost approximately $6-$7 apiece for silver fillings, or $12 for composite fillings specially mixed to match the natural shade of my teeth.
Speaking of teeth, the dentist took a look at my wisdom teeth and advised me (as have all my other dentists) that as my teeth are unusually small, there was no impaction and he didn't anticipate any negative effects on my jaw were I to leave them in. However, he then told me, it can be difficult to fill cavities in wisdom teeth, which is why most dentists opt to remove them if cavities occur. He asked me how long I planned to be in Japan. I informed him. He urged me to have them removed in Japan, because the entire operation would cost a little over $100 to have all four taken out.
He then proceeded to clean my teeth with some sort of tool that apparently knocked the plaque off of them with ultrasonic frequencies. Boy, does my mouth feel nice now.
Oh, and that astronomical $30 visit? Actually cost $29.
This is why America needs real health care reform. And seriously? Even if the death panel bullshit really were true, I might just be willing to trade twice-a-decade "usefulness" evaluations in my declining years for healthcare in my twenties to fifties that doesn't require selling a kidney on the black market to fund.
That will be all.
I went to see the dentist today. I did this only because I have visible, jet black cavities on some of my teeth. These cavities are the result of Japan's non-fluorinated water + the fact that the last time I visited a dentist was five years ago.
Why did I allow five years to pass between visits? Why, because I could not afford dental insurance in the United States. Which is why the total for the aforementioned previous visit came out to about $6,000, and that pretty much made me rethink even considering getting my teeth cleaned unless it looked like they were about to fall out of my mouth, weighted down with dental plaque.
Anyway, the clinic I visited today was as space age (if not moreso) as any dentist's office I have visited Stateside. We're talking clean, bright, and airy, with state-of-the-art flat screen plasma tv monitors on which the dentist showed me my x-rays and dental chair with a little sensor under the paper cup that automatically refilled it for me after I rinsed.
I had my x-rays; then the dentist poked around in my mouth while two assitants took notes. "Hm," he said. "I don't see anything too bad here, but I have to warn you that this visit is going to be expensive, as it's your first time at the office and we have no records for you."
"How expensive?" I asked him in trepidation, thinking about the $400 I had just withdrawn from my postal account that morning.
"Thirty dollars," he said, with enough gravity to suggest that most Japanese patients would consider $30 a hefty sum for a trip to the dentist.
I assured him this would not be a problem.
We then discussed the cavities. They will cost approximately $6-$7 apiece for silver fillings, or $12 for composite fillings specially mixed to match the natural shade of my teeth.
Speaking of teeth, the dentist took a look at my wisdom teeth and advised me (as have all my other dentists) that as my teeth are unusually small, there was no impaction and he didn't anticipate any negative effects on my jaw were I to leave them in. However, he then told me, it can be difficult to fill cavities in wisdom teeth, which is why most dentists opt to remove them if cavities occur. He asked me how long I planned to be in Japan. I informed him. He urged me to have them removed in Japan, because the entire operation would cost a little over $100 to have all four taken out.
He then proceeded to clean my teeth with some sort of tool that apparently knocked the plaque off of them with ultrasonic frequencies. Boy, does my mouth feel nice now.
Oh, and that astronomical $30 visit? Actually cost $29.
This is why America needs real health care reform. And seriously? Even if the death panel bullshit really were true, I might just be willing to trade twice-a-decade "usefulness" evaluations in my declining years for healthcare in my twenties to fifties that doesn't require selling a kidney on the black market to fund.
That will be all.