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November 14, 2007
Ad Nauseum
After a moment of reflection, and then a long shower, a couple of Hot Pockets, a train ride into the office, a cup of coffee, a reading of the emails, and then a quick peek at today's entry in this facocta storyline, I recalled reading a few weeks back about the dental crisis in, of all the easy set-up, knock-down-joke places, England. State-run health care is leaving 10% of the population without a dentist! The horror! But wait, what's the news here in the good old American dental industry? (Please to be noting that it is not a profession, an art, a craft, or a calling here, but rather an industry.)
With dentists’ fees rising far faster than inflation and more than 100 million people lacking dental insurance, the percentage of Americans with untreated cavities began rising this decade, reversing a half-century trend of improvement in dental health.Previously unreleased figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that in 2003 and 2004, the most recent years with data available, 27 percent of children and 29 percent of adults had cavities going untreated. The level of untreated decay was the highest since the late 1980s and significantly higher than that found in a survey from 1999 to 2002.
Thank you, sir. May I have another - cavity?
The dental profession’s critics — who include public health experts, some physicians and even some dental school professors — say that too many dentists are focused more on money than medicine.
Sweet. But not too sweet, need to keep those chompers chompin.
Dr. Caswell A. Evans, a dentist and associate dean at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said dentists must stop fighting efforts to expand care to patients they are not currently treating. The system is failing many patients, he said.“Right now we have a double standard of care,” Dr. Evans said. “Some people can get it and some people can’t.”
Hey, that sounds just like the GOP policy these days: I got mine. Gives one the fever chills, it really does.
Comments
I should have seen the "Stantis takes on national healthcare debate" coming. Of course it took two days of butt-chomping to get there, and then it's a lame joke to top it off. I can't wait to see how the rest of this plays out*.
*Yes, that's sarcasm.
Posted by: The Furnace at November 14, 2007 11:10 AM
So that's how he will address healthcare... by having Carmen knock down Winslow's strawman arguments. When has anyone ever claimed that national healthcare was a solution to paperwork and wait times? I'm sure there will be no mention of how Winslow is going to pay for his treatment. Does his "job" as a comic strip character provide him with an HMO?
Posted by: John at November 14, 2007 12:56 PM
I thought the only people who wanted health care were aging baby boomers trying to live forever. And Terri Schiavo. Winslow fits neither category. Hmmmm.
Posted by: Annie at November 14, 2007 01:22 PM
