The Healthcare Rip-off

  by Dr. Aaron Greenwald (218 pages e-book)

Your Money Wasted, Your Health Held Captive

Dr. Aaron S. Greenwald

HEALTH CARE AND YOU IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

           In 1776 the founding fathers of this great nation lead the Western world in introducing a new type of government; one of the people, by the people, and for the people. In 1993 the United States trailing all other industrialized nations of that same Western world in the provision of health care, finally decided to change our system; a system catering to the wealthy, well insured, and those unfortunates on welfare. The vision was to make the new health care plan more user-friendly, more inclusive, more compassionate, and more complete. A plan of the people, by the people, and, most important, for the people.

            Not merely for the vested interests of professional providers (read - physicians, dentists, chiropractors, podiatrists, optometrists, etc.) Not merely for the vested interests of multi billion dollar insurance companies. Not merely for the equally amply funded pharmaceutical industry that is considered the most profitable and most profit conscious of all American businesses. In 2002, according to Public Citizen, a nonprofit watchdog group, the combined profits of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the Fortune 500 exceeded the combined profits of the other 490 companies. Not merely for the new parasitical ventures feeding off the fee-for-service health care industry that gobbles up 16.67% of our Gross Domestic Product (formerly known as the Gross National Product).

            The Clinton Democratic administration tried to bring change, to blow a breath of fresh air into, an otherwise stultifying and financially thriving, industry. Yes, Virginia, health care is an industry. It feeds millions of people. It overfeeds far too many. Healthcare in the United States is a misnomer; an oxymoron. The concept of change has since lain dormant in subsequent administrations.

            Healthcare in the United States does not produce health and certainly does not care for the vast majority of people in such unending dire need of it. How many millions of us can afford it? Forty seven million, and counting, of us have no insurance to defray its unconscionable spiraling costs. Twenty four million more have inadequate health insurance. That means 71million of us are denied proper health care and resort to episodic emergency treatment that ends up costing much more than preventive care. Remember what your mother said: An ounce of prevention….

            Rather than cope with the anticipated back breaking, and budget busting billions, needed to finance a system doomed to fail, recent administrations, pressured by reluctant Congresses, put health care on the back burner. Bowing to the pressures of Political Action Committees such as   the American Medical Association, American Dental Association, and the octopus like tentacles of the omniscient insurance industry, represented in past commercials by characters called Harry and Louise, Congress has nullified any proposed health care program rather than fight off the heavily endowed lobbyists who only want to preserve their turf and the current profitable businesses they advise and feed off. Your health and welfare never enter their thoughts or business decisions, despite their syrupy disclaimers to the contrary.

            Following the misguided efforts of Congress, former president, Clinton, had allowed health care to be determined by the marketplace. The Bush II administration is only interested in exponentially enhancing the bottom lines of the industries already profiting from our health care system.

            Rather than root out the cause of the exploding health care crisis, the politicians have opted for the easier way out, put a Band-Aid on the wound, take two aspirins, and don't call your congressman in the morning. Rather than eliminate fee-for-service that cleans out your wallet, insurance coverage, and union benefits, the government is enabling the marketplace to dictate health care reform. Will that produce better health care? Not until managed care, in its many forms, takes over the market. Until then, only those who provide the included benefits will benefit. The doctors, pharmaceutical corporations, insurance companies, and other ancillary businesses involved in administering whatever health care remains after the political surgeons cut the program to shreds.

            With dental care eliminated from any possible health care proposal, you, the consumer, now more than ever, need to know how to get the most for your hard earned dollars. You are at a decided disadvantage because dentists have many more years of experience in perfecting their system of delivering dental care to the consuming public. They learned well how to maximize your insurance benefits for their benefit, how to "sell dentistry" to you, the unsuspecting, unknowing and gullible public. Dentistry; sometimes needed, many times superfluous, unnecessary and redundant. And, ever so costly! Most dentists profess and even advertise prevention, but fail to deliver on those promises. And what of the MDs? Do they stress prevention or are they merely selling medical cosmetics and repair. Remember that colloid chemist in Columbus.

            Now that the government has cast dentistry adrift from the safety of managed care, you will be forced, like the Flying Dutchman, to forever wander the omnipresent oceans of fee-for-service dentistry, possibly to be sucked into the whirlpools of pie-in-the-sky advertisements, expensive or inadequate insurance, and unabashed under-paying union plans. You will fruitlessly search for the promised land of affordable and efficient dental care. Without help from this book you will find only mirages, fast buck operators and dentists only too willing to clean out your wallet rather than your cavities or teeth. Dentists only too willing to build bridges in your mouth, that end up only bridging the gaps in their bank balances. Dentists primarily intent on restoring their financial well being rather than your oral health. Even Captain Bligh was given a crew, compass, sail, water, and provisions, by first mate Fletcher Christian, to help guide him home to England. Could the current administration and ship of state provide less?

            The dental profession has benefited both financially and emotionally during the past 30 years. With the possible exception of the depressed economy during the last four years of the 1980s, dentists have enjoyed an exponential growth in business and income at your expense. They learned well how to maximize your insurance benefits. They learned well how to maximize your Medicaid benefits. They learned well how to restore and rebuild deteriorated mouths. What they have not learned well, or at least chose not to practice well, is how to prevent dental deterioration. Why? Neither insurance companies, Medicaid, nor you, want to pay for prevention. But, as your parents always told you, an ounce of prevention …

                 Consumers have learned to accept fix and repair, rather than prevent and improve. If my insurance won't cover it, forget it! Consumers reject paying for education and prevention. However, we will pay for cosmetic improvement. These are the lessons we must relearn. Only with better health education, diet and proper prevention will we finally get a handle on the horns of the dental dilemma demon and throw it to the ground in triumph.

            There is a way out of this predicament for dental consumers. Until the government includes dentistry in health care coverage, we need all the help we can get to maintain our dental health. The following chapters give you the blueprints for building a better and healthier mouth. They also provide you with the tools for reconstructing that unhealthy mouth for the least amount of money possible. However, always keep in mind, YOU, are at least half responsible for your dental health.

             Unfortunately, we are all procrastinators when it comes to a dental visit. We wait until the last minute. Who wants to go to the dentist? Not even dentists! Human nature has proved why do today what we can put off 'til another time? I'm no different. Mark it down on your list of New Year's resolutions: next year I'm going for a check up and cleaning every three months. That's right before quitting smoking and immediately after losing weight. And so, it is when in pain, that we generally, finally, seek the services of a dentist.

            A contemplated trip to your local dentist is not like heading for your neighborhood shoe store. It's more like a visit to your nearest regional mall. So many shoe stores. Which to choose? Where is the quality? Is it comfort we need or fashion we desire? And now for a little moralizing. We don't shop for shoes when down to the last pair with broken heels and your toes sticking out of the uppers. Who would be caught walking around in such pedal perversion? Yet we wait for that dental disrepair and think it perfectly normal and correct and expect the dentist to rebuild a mouth, that were it a shoe, we would toss into the trash. Why are teeth no less important than shoes? I guess when you have 28 or 32 of something, a few more or less, makes little difference. However, when you're down to the last one, a new set of priorities is evolved. It's panic time.

            What if our mouths were so designed with only one large tooth, stretching from right side to left, in the upper jaw and one equally large one in the lower? Would that make us more careful? Would that make us more circumspect in our treatment and care of them? More likely to save both than freely toss them to the winds of chance and neglect? That reality may be in the far distant future of humankind. Paleontologists tell us that we have evolved from having four molars in the jaws of Neanderthal man to three in Homo sapiens. We are now in a transitional paleontological phase where more and more people are found never to develop more than two molars. Wisdom teeth may become a memorable relic. Will wisdom follow them? Can we wait another million or so years for that ultimate design? Rather, what we must now do is readjust our thinking from benign neglect and the fast fix, to maintaining, in the best condition, what nature and heredity have given us. Dental and otherwise.

            A visit to the dentist need not be fraught with fear. Fear of the bill or fear of the drill. Technological advances in the profession have all but eliminated pain and made it possible for most of us to have a beautiful, winning, and lasting smile. And a healthy mouth. As in shopping for shoes, the time to go is before utter breakdown or pain. This gives you the pleasure of leisurely shopping. A visit to your local mall dentist is worth the effort and likewise gives you the welcomed opportunity to look at some new shoes, coats, whatever. Now, how to get the most for your dollar.

            In what financial category do you see yourself? Are you a card-carrying member of the forever put-upon middle class with some discretionary income or dental insurance to pick up the financial slack? Or do you see yourself at the moment as qualifying for Medicaid or in need of bargain basement dentistry? Has the lack of finances prevented you from seeking other than emergency treatment in your mouth? No matter the category, no matter your financial condition, there is help for you on the following pages. Help for you to get a bigger bang for your buck and a better break for your bicuspids. Hey, let's not forget those ever-lessening molars.