I have not been to the dentist for almost 4 or 6 years now. I just never had dental insurance, and the prospect of finding a dentist has just been too daunting. You can find hundreds of reviews for a digital camera you want to buy, but try finding a review for your local dentists!
Anyways, I finally decided to look for a dentist since I am starting to get scared that my teeth will rot and fall off. Luckily for me, http://www.daviswiki.org has a ton of reviews for dentists in the Davis, CA area. If I lived anywhere else, I wouldn’t have a clue where to look. :?
I was happy to find several good dentists I would like to visit, but to my surprise, getting insurance to visit the dentist is a lot harder than I thought.
If I chose a popular insurer like Delta Dental, or Liberty Dental, I have to visit one their in-network dentists. This sucks because all of their in-network received horrible horrible reviews. Including accusations of unnecessary operations, and sexual harassment.
After three days of relentless research, and going through several websites learning about how dental insurance works, I finally decided on Blue Cross ( the same company I have health insurance on ). The crappy thing is, since the dentist I want to visit is NOT in their network, many of the benefits of having insurance is offset by higher costs. I have to submit to these costs because I do not want to visit a dentists that has no reviews or worst, a dentist with bad reviews.
This prospect makes me wish we had universal health care.
1) Everyone can visit good dentists – the bad dentists will have to shape up in order to keep their business. Right now bad dentists get away with being bad dentists because people have no options but to go to them because they are “in network”.
2) Reduces the confusion involved with getting dental insurance. Even as a college graduate, I find the lingo of dental insurance hard to digest. To be honest, I still have no clue on many of the features, exclusions, and limitations in the dental insurance plan I signed up for. I just want to get my teeth cleaned, why does it have to be so hard??
3) Universal health care will likely encourage people to get regular check ups on the motivation that it is easy to access. This “preventive medicine” practice will greatly reduce the burden on society because it will keep us all healthy.
In conclusion, I am disappointed at the health care system. For someone like myself who has no employer, or employers who won’t pay for my health insurance, it is a maze to walk through just to get some help. I am currently paying for my health care coverage, but I hate the thought of actually going to see a doctor or a dentist because I have no idea who I am allowed to visit, and if I can afford it! I am a single male with no illnesses and I already feel beaten by this system. I can’t imagine what a mother with child, or someone who is ill would feel when confronted with this broken system.
If things were perfect, we should all be allowed to have a doctor of our choosing, and know exactly how much we have to pay for it, instead of having to guest how screwed we are going to be financially if we decide to call on one. That’s exactly how I feel right now with dental insurance and health insurance. I am constantly afraid that my co-payment will be too much for me to handle, or I will simply get denied because I forgot to dot an I or crossed a T.
Sucks…