this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
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Rethorical question: Where in the world your insurance doesn't cover this?
And: Buying a house .. I don't know what to say about this. Who would do such a thing?
In America, dental and health insurance are separate. And many jobs that provide health insurance can often not provide dental insurance. There is a reason teeth are referred to as the "luxury bones".
Dem bones dem bones, dem luxury bones
It is not uncommon for people to travel from California or Las Vegas to Mexico for dental work because the expense is so high, sometimes even with insurance.
I do live in SoCal, so it’s not a crazy idea... Really hoping it won’t come to a potentially expensive surgery or Mexico though.
A sentence that's applicable to surprisingly many situations!
lol No kidding.
I live in IB. All my neighbors get their dentistry done in TJ. Apparently a $1600 crown here is only $200 in TJ
That’s actually a really good deal, better than I expected. 🤔
Always happy to help, Dale.
Who is this, Dale character? Whomever he is he sounds like a handsome, savvy man with the physical response time of a panther.
Ooh, right, sorry.
Rr-usty.
I had a cavity filled for 20 bucks in Mexico. Granted it was in zacatecas which is central Mexico but the dentist was reputable. He got his license in new York and also practices in new York. He's from that small town so he travels there a couple months a year and offers very cheap dental work for locals since he's from there and wants to give back to the community that helped him. Def check out tj or rosarito if you can though.
Damn, that’s an amazing price. That was recent there?? And I like the idea he’s giving back.
Almost exactly a year ago yea, was over on vacation.
Now I might need to know who lol.
When living in MX, my wife had a wisdom tooth removed. Cost me about $300, done at the hospital, no long term issues.
My parents used to winter in Arizona. They told me many of their neighbors used to go to Mexico for dental care, but allegedly Mexico (I would think America but my dad said Mexico) is trying to put a stop to folks crossing the border for this kind of care.
Aus here, for complex dental I can claim up to $800 annually on my extras cover, need braces for around $8000.
Edit: forgot to mention it'd only have been ~$2000 around 2003 when I was first told I needed them, but my parents, whom paid off our house with a year's combined salary, couldn't afford it. My dad argued it should come out of his existing child support payment, and I didn't get them.
FWIW, our universal health coverage here will cover medical dental care, but not cosmetic. They'll patch up or remove your bad tooth, but I think it'd be harder to get an implant or a crown without paying for it. Weirdly, dentists are still one of the two or three basic services where people here are still willing to pay for uncovered medical attention, the others being eyecare and pediatrics.
When I needed surgery my private dentist still sent me over to the public system, though. Took a look at my X-rays, told me she wasn't gonna touch any of that without an MRI and an OR on standby and told me to go to my public doctor with a note and tell them to get me booked with a maxillofacial surgeon, which I did. It wasn't that big of a deal in the end, but the reaction was... revealing.
Before this week, Canada.
In Canada eyes and teeth are not considered "health" and thus is also not covered by universal healthcare.
It was up to the provinces and employers to implement whatever coverage they wanted for those. In my place, dental care is free if you are under 18, or if you live from government assistance. The only way to get healthcare for your teeth as an adult, is to have a dental plan at work. So a young adult working minimum wage in a convenience store doesn't have dental insurance.
From personal experience, I didn't have dental insurance between 18 and 30 because I had low wage jobs.
However this is going to change a bit soon, because the social-democrats just pushed a vote to expand dental insurance to everyone that needs it. It's not universal yet but now people with low wage jobs will be covered.
I get where you're coming from, but you're not making the point you think you're making - even on the NHS you'd probably have to go private for that, unless you're on benefits in which case the NHS dentist has to see you, but will make you wait months and months for an appointment with their one burnt out NHS dentist who will do their best within their limits because they're only allowed to do the bare minimum on NHS patients (edit just to clarify: this isn't how it always was, and not "intentional" that people can't see an NHS dentist, there just aren't any, a result of dire underfunding and basically privatisation).
Yes, social healthcare is amazing and worth fighting for, but social healthcare under capitalism will still always favour profit over people, and the results are clear to see, which is why the only viable long term solution is to abolish capitalism, not fight for the stale crumbs it's willing to give.
Yes, I hate it. Even here in Germany you have to pay extra if you do not want the "repairs" done in a way that your teeth look normal again. But at least, bad teeth are considered a health issue here and you get treated when you have problems with your teeth and don't have to wait too long if it is a kind of emergency.
The USA
In Denmark, the social democratic Nordic welfare paradise, universal healthcare does not cover dental care for adults. If you're really poor and have an emergency you might have some luck begging the local municipality to pay for having the offending tooth pulled out but that's about it.
The result is a wide class disparity in dental health and even people who are not poor think twice before going to the dentist, resulting in issues growing worse than they had to be.
Some private insurance exists but they are free to reject you as a customer if your dental health is already bad.
Nobody likes the current system or want to be seen defending it. The only argument that's given for maintaining the status quo is that doing the right thing would be too expensive.
Same in Australia
I find this cruel.
Dental insurance in the US is absolute garbage that barely covers anything really.
insurance isn't SUPPOSED to cover regular expenses. YOur car insurance doesn't pay when you take your car to the shop for maintenance. If you want that you'll need to find someone willing to sell you a dental warranty. Reach out to carshield, they aren't doing great at getting me to buy an extended warranty on my car, maybe you'll convience them to expand their business model. ;-)
If that’s the case, then why does every dental plan cover routine stuff and barely help with emergency?
Dental “insurance” is exactly the opposite of what you said it should be. It covers routine stuff but lol if you want to use it for anything else, what with their max coverage for a plan year thing and all (which routinely is far less than half of your out of pocket cost for anything other than simple fillings, and if you weren’t paying for the do-nothing insurance every year, you’d be in largely the same financial position)
Weird, my health insurance covers routine physicals, medicines that would be considered maintenance, etc. 🤔
Dental is tricky in many countries. It's delicate, easy to go wrong and very often painful. In Poland I used to do simple things like fillings using public insurance and I've heard many times that I'm crazy and for sure they will fuck it up. I think it's simply because it's it expensive and will go wrong people will think it was inevitable. But if it's free and goes wrong people will say it's because it was free. So in my experience even if public insurance covers dental people tend to avoid it.