Dentist or Death
Today’s Wapo has a story about a kid dying in Maryland from an abcessed tooth. His mother apparently couldn’t get a Medicaid dentist to extract the tooth, perhaps wasn’t aware of any other options, and he ended up with a brain infection.
Gnawing at me as I read this was the reality of [...]
Today’s Wapo has a story about a kid dying in Maryland from an abcessed tooth. His mother apparently couldn’t get a Medicaid dentist to extract the tooth, perhaps wasn’t aware of any other options, and he ended up with a brain infection.
Gnawing at me as I read this was the reality of my own need for some medical care that I’m putting off because of the major expense. I have a little toothache myself, and even if it’s just a little cavity, which I doubt, it will cost a couple hundred dollars. Yes, I’ve researched the dental school, but here in Philly, even that is $65 to get an exam and x-rays. A bargain to be sure, if you have the time to sit and wait, which most people with jobs don’t have. And for those who don’t have a job, well, I’d venture to say that 65 bucks is earmarked for other necessities, like food and shelter.
Dental care, like medical care, as we all know, is outrageously expensive. A friend of mine, a medical professional herself with a good income, just got some medical work done that cost her $5000. She told me her dentist told her she really needed $20,000 worth of work, but who can afford that? She opted to have the worst problem fixed, and put off the rest indefinitely. With healthcare expenditures expected to double in the next ten years, how is anyone going to stay above water, insured or not? The is answer is there is no way we can afford it, unless we take the profit out of it to a large degree. And the answer to that is (once again I will reiterate) universal care, not universal coverage.
I also wanted to highlight the real story here though - the comments this article generated. The absolute hatred and contempt for the poor that comes through is devastatingly disproportionate, while the amount of control they are expected to have over their lives is almost hilariously projected onto them by these same haters. Of course there is the usual “the government is not responsible” crowd, and no one even mentions the doctors’ culpability from turning away a severely ill patient. Maybe the mother really had no idea her kid could get a fatal infection from a toothache, and the dentist would have done well to inform her. But hey, why bother if she can’t afford the bill anyway?
While I am guilty of not understanding the impulse to have children you can’t afford, and have made my own choice accordingly, I am capable of comprehending a reality that just isn’t that simple. Many people, men and women alike, can afford children when they first have them, and then find themselves in dire circumstances once they have them - frequently because of medical bills. Are we to tell them their children deserve to die because they are horrible parents? Are we as a society willing to sit back and say that it’s okay for children to die because their fathers are out of the picture, or their parents are ignorant, or they are criminals, or poor but hard-working, or have no relatives to help out? Where does it end and when will we finally draw a line and say none of it is acceptable?
As Atrios would say, “na ga happen” - at least until the vast majority of us are receiving our healthcare from faith healers and witch doctors.
I hear “eye of newt” is making a comeback as an analgesic.
“While I am guilty of not understanding the impulse to have children you can’t afford, and have made my own choice accordingly”.
It’s not so much the impulse to HAVE children you can’t afford, but the impulse to KEEP the baby once it’s inside you and can feel it. That’s why my babymama kept a child neither of us could afford.
But that’s a digression of course.
“Are we to tell them their children deserve to die because they are horrible parents? Are we as a society willing to sit back and say that it’s okay for children to die because their fathers are out of the picture, or their parents are ignorant, or they are criminals, or poor but hard-working, or have no relatives to help out?”
I think you know the answer to that question.
I’m poor. Well, I have been since I had to retire about ten years ago, and I don’t feel any hatred down my way. Maybe it’s a yankee thing.
I have to find doctors and dentists that will let me pay them out. It’s not hard down here, don’t know about elsewhere.
Most of my doc work is done via the VA, but they don’t do everything, including dental work unless it was a result of an injury or wound caused during service.
About this story. If the mother was so ignorant that she couldn’t find a way to get her child treated, which it appears she was, I have nothing but disgust for her. Also, I didn’t notice, but where was the father, brothes, sisters, aunts, uncles, friends in this mess?
Ignorance is no excuse nowadays.
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA
The hatred of the poor is the result of the right wing hate machine that has been going on since the 80’s. They make being poor the poor person’s weakness. They judge the person and have no compassion.
As someone moving into the senior years. I fear those behind me will not care to do their share to help those who need it. If they are Repubs we are all doomed.
brendan says:
hey brendan, you read my very first post. i’ve been there. it was, at the tender age of 25, the hardest thing i’d done. i was depressed for a really long time, and i still feel it sometimes. but i did the right thing, and i don’t regret it, even though my life ended up childless.
as i’ve said before this was one of my family values. you don’t have a kid you can’t afford just like you don’t buy a mercedes when all you can afford is a hyundai, or any other luxury.
but papa ray, it doesn’t make me filled with disgust and hatred for people who don’t do what i did. where was the father indeed - and how is that the mother or the kid’s fault? lots of people don’t have relatives they can turn to. hell, lots of people don’t even have relatives.
listen, i agree this kid’s death was pretty senseless. maybe the mother is pretty dumb. but jesus the racist venom that is spewed at the slightest provocation! - it is totally out of hand. the wingers love to talk about civility but they just don’t want people saying “fuck” while they foment the worst hate speech possible, as cb points out.
another thing…
if you read the wapo article, this mother jumped through hoops trying to get her kid to a dentist.
she waited months for an appointment for the oral surgeon and was forced to cancel her appointment because of a clerical glitch which caused her medicaid to be canceled. in all likelihood the dentist would not perform the surgery without the medicaid number and approval. yet it’s the poor mother who gets blamed for being ignorant, when even her lawyer couldn’t figure out how to get the proper dental care for the kid.
Thanks for linking the comments, somegirl.
They were, as you promised, disgusting.
The United States no longer qualifies as being an industrialized nation. It no longer qualifies as a civilized nation.
Unfortunately, the reason people hate the poor is because they fear becoming poor. And because they fear becoming poor, they will become poor.
Another example of the corporatists setting us to fighting over protecting our rice bowls while they slowly cut down our supply of rice for profit. Explain to me again why we are the greatest country in the world cause I an’t seeing it anymore.
If you get a chance, read _Money Driven Medicine_, Maggie Mahar. Corporate medicine plays a huge part in our piss-poor, high-dollar system, that looks down on those without means.