Like many Americans, I find myself in a new place, an unsettling place. My daughter recently qualified for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the first time I've ever qualified for state aid ever. Our family has gone through a rocky patch and we are living off of my graduate student income with my parents in a small town in western Nebraska for the next six months.
Times are tough.
Luckily my dear daughter (5yo) rarely gets sick, so I hadn't really even noticed that since November, we suddenly belonged to a new class of people.
In all fairness, we got her into urgent care the other saturday and got a prescription quite conveniently. But all of that is negated by the 10 phone calls I just had to make to find a Dentist in this town that will see kids on 'medicaid'.
On the way to school this morning, dd mentioned her jaw is hurting. 'Oh no mom, it's okay, I've just been chewing on the other side'. Great. She says she thinks she did it when she was chomping her mouth to Nirvana so now I'm thinking she either broke or chipped a tooth when she was using her teeth as a musical instrument, or hopefully less severe, she's gotten a piece of popcorn or something in there (she's a popcornaholic). Either way, she needs a dentist like yesterday.
So I open up the teeny tiny phone book for this town, go to the yellow pages and start at the top. At the very first place I called, I asked the receptionist if they accepted SCHIP. Well this woman had no idea what I'm talking about. She says, you mean Medicaid. I'm like 'yes', she's like 'no', we hang up. Rinse, repeat. 10. more. times. Finally a woman is kind enough to tell me the name of the ONLY Dentist in a town of between 20,000-40,000 that accepts State Children's Health Insurance.
So I'm just seething mad, and I can't figure out why. Just hearing no that many times in a row is defeating enough. Perhaps I had become accustomed to dd having accessible health care. I mean I always knew mine was lackluster (i'm a grad student) but she was insured through her dad and they payed a lot. I felt so entitled to her health care. I should know better, she's never had great insurance (insurance doesn't guarantee affordable accessible dental care) but she's always been able to see a dentist!
And quite frankly, the Dentists in this town should be ashamed of themselves. As SCHIP expands and more americans are squeezed out of the middle class, more children will be on State Children's Health Insurance. How is one dentist going to see them all, and how long will they have to wait? As is, dd can't get in until Thursday afternoon (thanks to a cancellation while I was on the line, otherwise, next wednesday). I wish she could get in sooner, it makes me feel like a bad parent that she has to suffer, er well, chew on one side. And it makes me mad at these greedy self centered dentists who think they can shut out a whole town. LTE?