Posted on 04/17/2008 1:36:04 PM PDT by george76
The full, desperate state of dental care across the country can be revealed today.
Half the population has received no dental care on the NHS in the last two years.
And thousands of suffering patients are turning up at hospital emergency departments for treatment because they cannot find an NHS dentist.
Shocking figures seen by the Daily Mail suggest there have been 27,000 more hospital admissions since the Government bungled the introduction of a new contract for dentists.
Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said: "We know that there are people out there who are pulling out their own teeth because they can't find a NHS dentist."
In total, 23,161,368 people in England - almost half the population - received no dental care on the Health Service in the two years up to last September.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Hillary Care
.
Poor dental care in the UK? Shocking!
/sarc
Similar stories out of Mass., and yet people here are touting Mitt for 2012. I think we have this kind of thing to look forward to no matter who gets in, unfortunately. The only hope is to take back the Congress.
If you enjoy your trips to the post office at Christmas, you are going to love national health care.
After all, gubermint does such a fine job with the DMV; by all means let them run healthcare. /tu
“If you enjoy your trips to the post office at Christmas, you are going to love national health care.”
The efficiency of the Post Office, and the compassion of the IRS.
They could not get NHS dentists two hundred years ago either.
England, two hundred years of history, unhampered by progress.
We should send in our crack team of specialists.
Half the population has received no dental care on the NHS in the last two years.
...But socialized healthcare covers everything, right?....Yeah Baby!
Yes, but how many of those 23 million people actually have teeth...
What would theyr think would happen when they started drinking chocolate?
This is actually my favorite place to rant against government healthcare. I've had to make several trips to the DMV lately. Standing in line watching lazy, incompetent people ignore your needs is a great place to discuss healthcare with others in line.
"I'm sorry sir, this is the broken arm line. The concussion line is over there. You must go to the back of that line."
"You don't have the correct paperwork for a heart attack. Please get your paperwork straight and then we can treat you."
Or the public education system.
Okay, so socialized medicine has improved things in the UK...but would it work here?
Two times in my life I neglected my teeth for long periods. These were two to three years. Neglected means any effort beyond routine brushing.
Two times in my life I have had to have my bone and tissue structure in my mouth rebuilt in long painful operations to recover from my negligence and prevent loss of all of my teeth.
These days I visit the dentist every six months. I simply don't want to go through any such thing again.
I think anyone proposing socialized medicine on any sort should be forced to skip the dentist for, say, four years. When their teeth start falling out they can say, "Yes, but it is free to you the average citizen." People sans teeth ar so sexy.
If national healthcare was a conservative idea, this story would be all over the place. Instead it will be filed away along with all the global cooling stories.
‘zackly what the Clintons had in mind for the rest of us.
And don’t forget those models of efficiency at the passport office.
It may not be that they cannot find a dentist, but rather they can’t find one that will take the governments cut rate reimbursement that doesn’t cover their expenses plus a profit.
If you pay out of pocket you can find a number of dentist that are qualified to take care of you. It’s been that way for many years in the UK.
Exactly, the comparison of dentistry in Britain and the United States illustrates what we could expect if we did what I’ve been saying for years—solve the healthcare problem by producing more doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
Back in the 60’s, US dentistry was on the way to becoming its own problem very much like the US healthcare system is today. Then the states began to produce dentists faster, and now we have a system which is very much manageable. Dental care is easy to get. Optometry was very much the same sort of situation.
But the physicians were much more adept at blocking the production of more doctors, using their surrogates in the government and the healthcare industry to make the argument that increasing the number of doctors would actually result in an increase in costs, claiming that the healthcare market does not work by the same laws of supply and demand that all of the other markets work by. And you can see what has happened as a result. They were obviously wrong because their remedy did not work, and we are now in a crisis.
We need to get the government out of the business of restricting the number of young people who can become doctors and nurses. We should not have such a shortage of doctors in this country that you can’t get a doctor in most areas, and if you do, you must wait for months to get an appointment. We should not have such a shortage of doctors that emergency room doctors must work 24 hour stints, and pretty much live at the hospital. We should have a lot of doctors for everyone to choose among. We need more competition. With more competition, we’d have lower costs, and people would be able to pay for their own medical care, without politicians promising pi in the sky government schemes to pick up the bill as though it were “free” healthcare.
The reason the healthcare system stinks is not that the free market has failed, but rather that government has failed. And you’re not going to fix that problem with more government regulation.
There likely two systems : the government system that is terrible and the private one that does work.
Yes, but how many of those 23 million people actually have teeth...
You don’t know how close you hit the nail on the head. The UK has millions of people sporting full dentures, and here is why.
A dentist in the UK gets paid about the same for an extraction as they do for a more complicated procedure like filling a tooth. Filling a tooth takes much more time (30-45 min) and supplies. Extracting a tooth takes just minutes. Thus the dentist there stopped filling teeth and just pulls them.
Government health care works, but that is how it works.
LOL I love it! It is an instant FReep. It’s almost worth the trip to the DMV to try it out.
Free healthcare. You get what you pay for.
We need to get the government out of the business of restricting the number of young people
It is not just the government. It cost approximately $50,000.00 per year to go to medical or dental school in this country. Our physicians and Dentist are the best trained in the world, bar none. But I see, in the future, this is going to change. Many physicians are foreign school grads and just don’t cut it. I am clueless as to how they get their license .
Thus the dentist there stopped filling teeth and just pulls them.
Government health care works, but that is how it works.
It’s third world health care at best!
There likely two systems : the government system that is terrible and the private one that does work.
Right. The one we have now is the one that works, Change and hope is what the democrats are offering. Nothing in this world is free.
Tax payer national health care will result in 50% or more of all revenues spent to build some new mausoleum in DC.,stuffed with stiffs,that we will be forever paying their salary/pensions.
In a few years they're broke and restricting services and we're back where we started, paying out of pocket.
I remember when HMO's started ,they were free too.
” But socialized healthcare covers everything, right?....Yeah Baby! “
It does in Japan - where I be - and we don’t have the problems England does . Of course comparing NHS in the UK to NHS in Japan , is like comparing the electrical system of an MGTD , to one on a Lexus . ;)
Yes, my experience with Japanese dentistry has been outstanding. I think the Japanese system compares very favorably to my less impressive experience with the U.S. system.
It costs $50,000 a year to go to college. Believe me, if the government did not effectively restrict the number of doctors, we would produce a whole lot more of them, even without government assistance. You’d have hospitals agreeing to pick up the tab for any student who wanted to go to medical school and would commit to work for so many years at the hospital. You’d have corporations doing the same. You’d have private philanthropy coming out of your ears to get these guys an education. But there is no point in doing that if it won’t produce another doctor because we’ve got a shortage of space in medical schools.
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
I think you would appreciate post 24.
Seems like the Brits will fast be catching up to the Russians in the category of repulsive appearance of teeth.
LOL. You and I think alike. I love to bring up health care as a topic when I'm stuck at the DMV. Seems like the perfect place as everyone there is experiencing government ineptitude on a grand scale.
I'm normally a mild-mannered guy but for some reason when I step into a government building, my fuse becomes much shorter. Seems like it takes very little for me to get annoyed by a government worker.
it won’t produce another doctor because we’ve got a shortage of space in medical schools.
Right on. There have been several dental schools close over the past 10-15 years, so in the future look for a shortage of Dentist. (Loyola-Chicago, Northwestern, Washington U.-SL, Oral Roberts to name four.)
Why,yes! Everyone has coverage. It’s just that no one has access. Coming to our country soon! We’ll all have cards to carry, just no way to use them.
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