I mean, really, how could anyone think that the abilities to eat and to see are in any way related to human health?
I can see their point if instead of being fleshy humans, we are androids without mouths and cameras instead of eyes.
Then they can collect all the premiums and not have to pay out! Brilliant business strategy. Time to start converting people into robots.
I hope I'm part of a pneumatic delivery system! Like human centipede, but bidirectional.
A switch shitter?
Sure but what do you do when your oens gets scratched?
And ears. Not covered (in the USA, at least) because "just about everyone suffers hearing loss at some point in their life" (aka not a profit maker) so might as well not cover it at all for anyone, including those with profound loss from birth...
That explains why teeth and eyes aren't covered either. They are bound to degrade with age.
That's true for literally everything in your body.
It's the reason why health care can't be capitalist.
Capitalism isn't interested in anything other than shareholder profits - access the provision of healthcare, food, shelter, you name it will only happen as a means to deliver those profits, and will stop the second there's no profit to be had.
At this point, nothing should be capitalist (we should focus on the provision of healthcare food and shelter, not deriving a profit from these essentials) - the incredible level of waste in the system is evidence of this.
For dental, at least, it's because there are two ways to treat issues with your teeth: extract them or repair them.
If you go to the emergency room with tooth pain because of some cavity that gets infected, a doctor there can and will extract it. And your insurance will cover this as a medical expense (unless the doctor was an actual dentist and charges as such). That's also why wisdom tooth extraction is often covered by medical insurance.
But if you want to preserve that tooth, you need a dentist, with specialized skills and tools, which are far more expensive.
Insurance companies get away with not paying for dental work because "technically" you don't need your teeth to eat, and "technically" you don't need all of them to chew, and "technically" you can be perfectly healthy without any teeth at all. QED, they argue trying to save your teeth is a cosmetic expense.
And they got away with that reasoning. And they still do.
The visible state of a person’s teeth is far too useful a proxy for their position in the socioeconomic hierarchy to ever be sacrificed by making dental care affordable.
I'm blessed by being a white man with fat supple lips and also I can jump. But you almost never see my teeth.
Luxury bones
Oh it’s worse than that. Dental and eye insurance are separate except for when the issue you have is bad enough to need an oral surgeon or an ophthalmologist. So the preventative and maintenance care that avoids problems with your teeth and eyes isn’t covered. And basic treatments aren’t covered.
This is like saying sorry, we don’t cover cold and flu medicine, we wait until it’s pneumonia to cover your issue.
y'all's health insurance covers your cold and flu medicine?
If I go to the doctor and they say you need to take those medicine, then yes, it does.
You must have one of those fancy no deductible plans....
My insurance doesn't cover shit till the cumulative bills nears 10k for the family or something like that. Wooo hoo hundreds of dollars a month to pay inflated insurance prices.... It's cheaper to pay the cash price most of the time...
But yay I get to put a couple thousand aside tax free for someone else to make money off of my money.
What the fuck is wrong with America....
Nah, I just live in a developed social democracy.
Vision insurance is garbage too if you actually have vision problems. My vision is so bad I have to have specialty lenses, which of course aren’t covered. It’s usually cheaper to just pay cash.
Oh snap it's the once every two years my vision insurance covers new frames! Oh hey it doesn't cover contact lenses... Also it only covers $125 worth of frames and lenses $50.
But nowadays lenses are free and frames from any eye doctor that isn't Walmart are all $180+... But wait... The lenses may be free but the coatings aren't... Even if plastic is a hot glarey mess with antireflective... But sorry, coatings aren't covered because they aren't lenses... You see, despite being called lens coating, and becoming part of the lens once coated... Just like a door handle isn't just a handle... We only pay for lenses... Not lens coating...
Also you still need the health insurance if they need to do anything extra like retinal imaging, motion testing, etc...
Anyone that hates on single payer/universal healthcare needs a swift kick to the taint.
E: More.
Anecdotally I just went for the eye and contact exam that was covered, took my prescription to Eyebuydirect, and in the last year I bought 3 pairs of glasses from them for less than $150 (2 in one transaction, one in another).They aren't crap quality and their in house, i.e. not name brand, frames are pretty cheap and good looking.
I am not a sponsored corporate shill, but so far I have nothing bad to say about them.
Ah yep, that's the other site I found besides some 1800contacts which also did glasses now. The other reply mentioned the others, Eyebuydirect and Zenni.
I've usually gone Zenni myself.
Check out Zenni. For the price of a pair from your optometrist, you can get like 5+ pairs of good quality glasses.
Source: I buy 10 pairs at once because I'm always stepping on them.
That's actually who I had my insurance reimburse me through for the frames lol.
There were a couple other decent sites but I found my look on there the best.
Unfortunately my head is gigantic, both metaphorically and literally so finding wide enough glasses is a pain. Been getting the usual post frame change headaches with both XL pairs.
If they're wire frames you could try to bend them to fit around your head better. Or get a place that sells glasses to help you out (some will if you ask nicely)
Yeah bending my frame arms has pretty much always been what I had to do. It just feels bad to do. Depending on how bad the metal is it's likely to snap too.
It'd just be nice to have a pair of $150 glasses and lenses to actually fit rather than pretend everyone has the same damn face size lol.
how did we ever let it get this bad
i mean really i know we're a broken awful country but whenever this started in like 1890 how was the first guy who thought of this not taken out into the fields by a ragtag vigilante group
how did we ever let it get this bad
[̲̅$̲̅(̲̅ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°̲̅)̲̅$̲̅]
Kinda works that way under the NHS in the UK too. Eye and dental care are handled by private opticians and dentists.
You can get financial assistance but most people don't qualify. Working people generally have to pay for both themselves.
Also you only get medication paid for if it's a long term illness or you're on financial assistance.
Some hospitals used to have emergency dentists. Not sure if some still do but I know my local one doesn't.
Still heavily subsidised, it's not like we are paying "full price".
NHS dental charges
There are 3 NHS charge bands: Band 1: £25.80
Covers an examination, diagnosis and advice. If necessary, it also includes X-rays, a scale and polish (if clinically needed), and planning for further treatment.
Band 2: £70.70
Covers all treatment included in Band 1, plus additional treatment, such as fillings, root canal treatment and removing teeth (extractions).
Band 3: £306.80
Covers all treatment included in Bands 1 and 2, plus more complex procedures, such as crowns, dentures and bridges.
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/dental-costs/how-much-will-i-pay-for-nhs-dental-treatment/
Yeah myself and several people I know haven't been in more years than I'd like to say. When their estimates are more than $15k you decide to wait a bit longer.
And it has greatly improved British teeth. The old stereotype of bad British teeth was because of how things were before the NHS. My English father's teeth were so bad that he ended up having to go to Costa Rica to get the surgery done because it would have cost $10,000 in the U.S. out of pocket. He was born in 1931, so the NHS didn't even exist until he was 17, but he always considered it the greatest accomplishment that Britain had achieved (my father was also a die-hard socialist who bragged about how he booed Churchill when Churchill visited his high school). He'd be pretty appalled at the state of it now.
Your ears, too.
Are ENT doctors not covered in your plan?
I believe they mean hearing aids. At least many of them are OTC now.
Public health care in Denmark has dental until you're 18, maybe 21,IDK I haven't been 18 in a while.
Eyes are a mixed bag, if you need an ophthalmologist it's covered, but glasses falls into the luxury department.
So sorta the same idea about face stuff.
Super weird that glasses are considered "luxury." Of course, it's a luxury just to see clearly...
They got consulting from EA
Image Transcription: Twitter Post
Laurazepam, @andlikelaura
my favorite part about health insurance is how your teeth and eyeballs are add-ons
Medical insurance absolutely covers your eyes and teeth, it just doesn't cover optometrist or dentist services. It covers related medical doctor services, like ophthalmologists or periodontists. Also dental and vision insurance in my experience has been way cheaper and easier to use than medical insurance, I don't want them to be part of my medical insurance lol
In my country it's teeth and genitals ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Oh I'm so curious. What country, does that include urinary tract issues, or just reproductive stuff?
Greece! I was exaggerating a bit, I was talking about OBGYNs. But there are 5-10 available doctors per month in a 1mil people province for example, so people tend to just go private.
Dentists are completely off the table, of course.
So if someone cuts your dick off, though luck? 🤣
Isn't it because they are different providers? I don't go to a hospital to get oral surgery or an eye exam...
You are pretty close. The American Medical Association, (AMA), and the American Dental Association, (ADA), are the 2 different medical organizations that represent each group. Originally, they tried to set up one association but the dentists decided to form their own group. This has lead to group bargaining with insurance companies. Which leads to separate policies being needed.
You missed the part where Dentists are even greedier than your average Medical Professional.
They remain separate because Dentist groups spend Million ~~Bribing Politicians~~ Lobbying every year to keep it that way.
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