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Death By Toothache
If our Medicaid policy was vaguely moral, 12-year-olds wouldn’t die because they couldn’t get their toothaches dealt with in time.
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5 Responses to “Death By Toothache”
“The first conservative post I saw on the article was even more of a doozy. Not only does it tragically yet predictably blame the mother for not shelling out the $80 for the procedure, it goes so far as to call for her prosecution as a child abuser. This is one of the more spectacularly arrogant and malicious things I’ve ever read. We’re talking about a family that was in homeless shelters.”
Jesus H. (for homeless) Christ, how much money do right wing ignorants think a homeless family has in the pockets? Are the wingnuts totally out of their minds?
Anyone who can’t understand why that mother didn’t have $80 dollars doen’t understand what its like to be really poor. She was homeless for a bit so she weren’t making any money. $80 is alot of money when you can’t even keep a roof over your head.
Years ago, I dated a girl who took her kids to the dental college at the IU Med center. Students did cleanings filled cavities and did exams for a $5 per patient. the instructor checked the work when the student was done. she had to get there early and sign up and it took all day. I don’t think that’s not even offered anymore. Probably because of lawsuits or something.
Of course the conservatives don’t understand how it could happen. That would involve viewing reality without ideological blinders.
This is one of the reasons that should we ever get truly universal health care it should recognize that dental health should not be differentiated from general health. It’s been shown by multiple studies that gingivitis and infections like this boy died of are detrimental to your health even if it never gets as extreme as what happened to this poor boy and his family.
This nation is forever chasing pennies today in order to dpend a bundle later. Preventative care and care in the early stages of a disorder is cheap in relation to treating advanced diseases.
I have had personal experience dealing with this kind of situation, and it is a desperate one for those without dental insurance. Medicaid only covers dental care for children- adults usually get no care for dental abscesses, regardless of the medical risk. Very few dentists accept medicaid plans, and appointments are far and few between. There’s no such thing as a dental emergency, if you have medicaid.
But for children with medicaid, even getting fracture care by orthopedics is difficult to find. I’ve sent children to the emergency room for fracture care, because no orthopedist would accept medicaid, or those who would, could not see them for weeks.