I was reading nyceve's diary about the sorry-ass state of dental care in America when I realized that we had a perfect case study of private vs. public healthcare.
As many people are aware, the healthcare market in America is not fully private. We have VA care, a government health plan our Congressmen participate in, and of course Medicare. This leads plenty of twittering nitwits with the free market stars in their eyes to conclude that because the public proscriptions of regulation (I wish there was a horror-show font tag in HTML) that our otherwise free-market system was being "corrupted" by the public system. I've heard many times the statement that if Medicare would just GET OUT OF THE WAY we'd have a perfect healthcare system and the market would fix all of our problems.
I made this comment in the diary but I want to catapult the meme, so to speak, so I've expanded it to my own diary. The short and sweet below:
First of all, I want people to realize that Medicare is a huge deal to private healthcare providers. It is not a drop in the bucket. Every time there's a waffle in Medicare payouts (such as the Medicare Cliff of 1997) there is a major shuffling in the industry.
So what if we could compare a true private healthcare system to a "Medicare-infested" one? What if we could find somewhere in the world where a healthcare system existed that was completely private, as a control to one that was half-private and half-public, in addition to the dozens of examples of superior healthcare systems that are fully public?
As it turns out, dental care is almost completely privately-funded.
It's true that Medicare is provided for some dental work. Here's the relevant documentation:
Currently, Medicare will pay for dental services that are an integral part either of a covered procedure (e.g., reconstruction of the jaw following accidental injury), or for extractions done in preparation for radiation treatment for neoplastic diseases involving the jaw. Medicare will also make payment for oral examinations, but not treatment, preceding kidney transplantation or heart valve replacement, under certain circumstances. Such examination would be covered under Part A if performed by a dentist on the hospital's staff or under Part B if performed by a physician.
So, no tooth cleaning or braces. Or regular checkups.
And apparently some Medicaid programs will provide dental coverage, but at rates so low that most dentists won't accept it.
As nyceve documented, we have as a result of this poor participation in the public health system, with over a third of the population unable to access dental care at all.
Bifurcated along lines of class and privilege, dental care is rapidly becoming for the upper middle-class and wealthy only.
An overwhelming majority of Americans can check on the truth of this for themselves and see: when there is NO public entity participating in a healthcare system, it rapidly turns into exactly what we Liberals have said it would: a system catering only to those who have the means to pay.
And the proof is out there that once someone falls out of that system, they will simply die from neglect.
So the next time you get this talking point ignorantly spewed at you, have the facts on hand. All other things being equal, a side-by-side comparison of the same population having some access to public healthcare (in the form of Medicare for non-dental problems) and no access to public healthcare (in the form of dental issues), the truth is, the all-private system is a catastrophe. End of discussion.