Does Medicare Pay For Dental Work?

What kind of dental coverage is included with original Medicare? Does Medicare pay for routine care like exams, cleaning and X-rays? Or crowns and bridges.

The answer is no.

No basic dental coverage. No routine exams. No cleanings or X-rays.

The next question is . . . why not?

Auto insurance doesn't cover routine items like tires, brakes and oil changes. Why do people THINK they need dental insurance to see a dentist?

I have no idea.

But maybe this will help.

The retail cost of dental and oral health care services varies widely, from practice to practice and from one geographic region to another. But according to one consumer website, a standard cleaning typically costs between $70 and $200. Dental X-rays can cost $250 or more. - Insurance News Net

Split the difference in $70 vs $200 and call it $185 for a routine exam and cleaning. With twice a year cleaning that works out to a little more than $30/month, stuffed in your mattress, to cover the cost of routine dental care.

Why does someone need insurance to "help pay for" something you could pay from petty cash?

Most individual dental insurance plan premiums run $25 - $45 per month. Almost all require you to use participating network dentists. They have annual limits of $1,000 - $1500. Major work like crowns, bridges and root canals are not covered until you have had the plan 6 to 12 months.

Does it make sense to pay $500 - $600 per year for a dental insurance plan you can only use with maybe 15% of the dentists in your area? When you finally do get to use it for major work it may only pay 30% of what the dentist bills.

You decide.

#Medicare #DentalCare #DentalInsurance

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More Rocket Surgery from the MVNHS�

So, underscoring once again that ("free") coverage ? care, the Brits' Much Vaunted National Health System�, FoIB Sally Pipes tips us to this item:

"Megan flew to Istanbul for private surgery late last year, having been told she faced long delays for an operation to fix the deformation of her spine, which was causing her problems breathing."

As we know, the bureauweenies who run the MVNHS� aren't too keen on the next generation, so I was actually surprised that the young lady was allowed to travel elsewhere for potentially life-saving treatment. Perhaps this was due more to the fact that she's Irish, not English.

And adding insult to injury, we learn that these kinds of national health care schemes don't actually rein in costs:

It's kind of funny that their data actually shows real socialized medicine (UK NHS) has annualized cost growth higher than that in the US. This is not something they much advertise, though (see Exhibit 5): https://t.co/YWWJtW3L0h

� Rob McMillin (@scareduck) April 10, 2018

Ooops.

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Told ya so!

Back in late '16, we pointed out that "going bare" had begun to make sense since health insurance had become too expensive to use:

"It might be a ticket to get you into certain medical facilities, but in these days of narrow networks, it will keep you out of others."

Believe it or not, it's gotten worse:

"Obamacare is now so expensive it keeps patients away from their doctors"

And, I would add, their hospitals and specialists, as well.

As Heartland Institute's Justin Haskins points out:

"In a recent survey ... 47 percent of those surveyed said they chose within the past 12 months not to see a doctor or dentist for a routine checkup ... because of the high costs associated with healthcare."

But how could that be; after all, annual physicals are "free."

Well, except for that whole pesky thousands-of-premium-dollars-later thing.

And then there are the non-routine costs, with additional out-of-pockets in the thousands (often tens of thousands) of dollars.

The point, of course, is that the ultimate end-goal of ObamaCare has always been  Single Payer; by that metric, these unworldly prices are features, not bugs.

Definitely click through to read the whole thing.

[Hat Tip: FoIB David Fluker]

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CanuckCare� Off the Rails

Back in Aught Nine, we noted that "[a] group in British Columbia has offered medical waiting-list insurance to members whose government treatment is on hold."

Well, turns out that the folks in charge of Canadian health "care" haven't taken too keenly to these kinds of work-arounds:

"The B.C. government has moved against doctors who engage in illegal extra billing, enacting a law that aims to end queue-jumping by patients who pay to fast-track access to publicly funded medical care."

What makes this so funny ironic is that the province leads the country in these types of practices.

For now.

Which may be good news for American providers, no?

[Hat Tip: Sally Pipes]

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