We talk all the time about the problem with healthcare and the lack of health insurance and, yes, this is a major problem.
But, as I've learned today, the problem extends further to dental care. In 2006, the National Association of Dental Plans reported than only 57% of Americans had dental insurance. That means something like 135 million people are without any dental insurance.
Perhaps you can get by without dental insurance with good oral hygine, but even then, those small problems can come up that can cause chaos. I brush my teeth everyday, twice a day, and floss, (perhaps not well I gather) but this morning I woke up in excrutiating pain coming from a molar in my upper left jaw. The pain was so bad, I was tearing up and banging my head against the wall just to blunt the pain.
I decided I wasn't going to live in pain and since my grandfather died of a stroke brought on in part because of an infection in an abcess in a tooth he never took care of because he never went to the dentist. I'm not a fan of the tooth guy, but he's been taking care of me since I was 7 and I like him...so I called my dentist, made an appointment and within a minute he knew...time for a root canal.
But without insurance my root canal with a crown will cost $2700. I had to leave a $557 check in this office today.
Thankfully, I took the advice of my big brother and saved up a lot of money in college. My savings account is at about $17,000, so the worst case is this root canal won't bankrupt me, rather it will merely cost the money I planned on using to see my brother in Rome in the fall.
I guess that trip will have to wait until the Spring.
But I wonder how many people out there, how many of that 57%, do not have $2700 at all. The pain I was in this morning came without warning, out of nowhere, unexpected. A sudden emergency and I'm out $2700. I can afford, but not many people can.
Healthcare is only the tip of the iceberg. Nearly half of Americans are one cavity away from thousands of dollars in debt.