Affordable Health Care...But Do We (DDS-Types)?

Affordable Care…But Do We (DDS-types)?

So when you do the math that says you’ve now walked the earth more days than your dad, it can be the cause for some reflection.

And like many lucky sons, I don’t assume I’ll be nearly the man my dad was. To a fault, he believed everyone deserved a chance; last time I looked, that was an American ideal. Even for the 30,000,000 citizens who’re one banana peel away from losing everything and the 30,000/year who lose their lives for the lack of health insurance.

I’m reasonably sure that my mouthing off in print is totally the politically incorrect move for a local small businessman and health care provider. But I just can’t help myself this time around.

When I look at social issues, I personalize the consequences. How will the results impact friends and family (and that includes my co-workers and patients.) And what would my dad have said? And what if MY family was being denied the chance for some security available to the rest of the industrialized world?

I don’t have to go very far to find an example. Both of my parents suffered from diabetes. Had my dad been one of the 30,000,000 he would have lost his life instead of a leg, I would’ve never made it through college, and my mom and I would’ve probably qualified as part of that notorious 47% who live the high life while relying on government support. My mom would have died years earlier; I wouldn’t be serving others today and I would’ve never had the privilege of meeting the friends and family I know as my co-workers and patients.

I belong to a dental email network of progressive dental practices numbering somewhere around 1,000 nationwide. But sometimes “progressive” goes only so far; regrettably, maybe only so far as the latest in dental power tools, lasers, and software.

Seems like a vocal majority of my online DDS-type brethren, allegedly dedicated to serving those in need, prefer taking the low road and just saying “No” when it comes to supporting the Affordable Care Act (ACA), no matter that it’s the law. And even though the impact of ACA is, on the surface negligible regarding dentistry, my “pro-dentite” brothers’ resistance to the law borders on “the sky is falling.” They might be colleagues and most of us share some camaraderie over the dental school boot camp experience, but to me, their attitude and behavior is a total disgrace.

A time-out doesn’t cut it. A dunce cap, fitted over their loops, with “selfish” written in front might serve as poetic justice.  Maybe a lifetime supply of Ted Cruz and Dad CDs…?

If it’s the apocalypse because your inexpensive insurance plan was cancelled since it didn’t meet ACA minimum standards, please find someone who cares and cry on their shoulder, not mine. Insurance companies cancel plans all the time…and here’s a revelation, they increase premiums exponentially the way rats multiply. And if you think the roll-out website disaster should condemn reform in the making for some 65 years, please just go play on the 605 freeway for a while until you gain some measure of perspective.

I’ve always provided health insurance for my co-workers. If you authentically care about those who bless you with their trust and support, how could you not? The cost of our health plan will increase 4% in 2014. In the past, we’ve seen premiums from another carrier go up some 20-30% annually.

I’m much more comfortable paying a higher premium if it will help a neighbor gain some measure of health security. My question to naysayer colleagues is who would you like to include in the 30,000 Americans who’ll die this year?

Being a health care provider against needed and long-awaited health reform is like being a dentist suiting up against tooth brushes and dental floss. And if you’re pro-status quo because your premiums might go up with ACA, how do you feel about a government option that would make the health insurance industry much more competitive? Oh, I thought so.

And lastly, if your principles are so strong that you’d deny health coverage because of perceived cost and tyranny of those in power, how do you reconcile you and I and our patients all getting hosed on a daily basis by Delta Dental (their average annual max benefit hasn’t changed in over 40 years)?

I never hear any solutions that venture beyond the status quo from you guys…just complaints.

I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’…