a visit to the dentist
Vermont is known as the home of Bernie Saunders, one of a few tiny rays of non-conformity in an antiquated two party system that believes it is a democracy. He coined that term “Medicare for All” when “socialized medicine” and “single payor health care” became too scary for Amerikkkan polititians to even utter. Here in Vermont, way back in the 2010’s we were working very hard on state legislation to create real health care for all. We even passed that legislation. Unfortunately, we were not politically savvy enough back then to anticipate the governor (shame on you, Peter Shumlin) and Big Pharma lobbyists blocking the FUNDING for that legislation.
So it is 2022 and we are regrouping. (see https://workerscenter.org/equitable-financing/)
In the meantime, I became old enough to qualify for medicare. Ah, medicare; that dream of finally getting a break in AmeriKKKan capitalist medicine, and having better access to REAL health care.
DREAM ON, FOLKS.
Even in Vermont— which is way ahead of the curve, on health issues— medicare coverage has a few surprises that I’ll share with you here. So you don’t get snookered.
Firstly, MEDICARE DOES NOTHING FOR HEALTHY AMERICANS, AGING WITH GRACE. No routine support for declining hearing, vision, or teeth. No preventive or maintainence for our aging bones, and the biomechanical changes we all experience. If you entered your 60th year chronically ill and on three or ore medications for those problems, then I can imagine you will breathe a sigh of relief, over increased coverage for your prescriptions.
But I was on no chronic prescriptions, so no sigh of relief. A snort of disgust, as I read the fine print on my federal policy. Turns out the Feds are not as progressive as my Brave Little State, and I cannot continue to see a naturopath as my primary care practitioner.
So second, no real “integrative medicine options” paid through Medicare.
Now on, to my visit to the dentist.
I have used (and continue to use) the progressive People’s Wellness Clinic in Barre, Vermont (https://www.phwcvt.org/) for dental care. They do the cleanings; if anything bigger is going on, I would go to one of the private dentists recommended and “pay out of pocket”. Back in April, a routine X-ray showed a cyst around an impacted wisdom tooth. Thirty years ago— when the other three wisdom teeth had been routinely removed— the dentist explained that this last tooth “was wrapped around a nerve” and “no need to remove it unless it gave me trouble”. The cyst was trouble; it could mess up my jaw bone. So now that tooth and the cyst needed to be removed. I contacted the oral surgery group reccomended, and waited for my consultation appointment.
In November, it finally came around. Good thing that it took so long; the estimate for the “out of pocket” cost of all of this was $1,600.00 I don’t use any credit cards; I did not qualify for some healthcare credit card (https://www.carecredit.com) that seems to be all the rage. A white friend had gifted me that money (as many white folks are recognizing racial wealth discrepancies, and stepping up to the plate with real reparative actions), which sat in an envelope in my home for seven months, while I waited for the surgery consultation visit.
In the consultation visit, the original estimate of $1,600.00 exploded up to $1,969.00. I scrambled to cough up: that additional $169 plus $40 (for a spot X-ray, taken of the tooth and not included in the estimate), but it had been a good month and I had the money. OOOPS; they forgot to mention that I will be billed for the pathology report. So there is likely to be a bill for the cost of the pathology on that cyst in two weeks. That additional cost? Anywhere from $400 to $700.
Saddest part of this somewhat sordid story, is that I bargained all of these costs DOWN from $2,600! I am embarrassed to confess that I had originally complained of pressure sensitivity in another tooth entirely; an upper tooth, which was diagnosed by X-ray as fractured. The impacted wisdom tooth/cyst problem showed up incidentally, on that X-ray. I bargained down my dental costs, by deciding NOT to have the original problem fixed. I decided not to have the fractured tooth pulled, saving me close to $600.
This is not the best way to be making health decisions.