Dental clinic a toothache for taxpayers
The following is a Counterpoint column.
By Jack Glenn
Your Aug. 27 editorial on local dental programs reports "an estimated 66,000 Guilford County residents have no dental insurance."
You imply that it is a given that everyone should have it.
Insurance should protect us from ruinous, unusual expenses. Purchase dental insurance to insure against huge dental catastrophes, not to prepay dental visits. Pay market rates for the occasional dental office checkup because it is ordinary and noncalamitous.
True dental insurance should protect from outsized bills and should be inexpensive because dentists rarely inflict huge surgery bills on patients.
Should a $1,500 dental bill be insurable? Only as much as there should be insurance against $1,500 auto repair bills, but let us not give anyone ideas.
On the other hand I personally seek health insurance to cover staggering medical bills. I prefer to pay $100 or so for important visits to a doctor, equating that expense with a nice dinner. A doctor visit is more important than a fine meal. A $15 co-pay prices its importance the same as two tickets to a bad movie. My health is worth more than that.
We should be sympathetic to the plight of the poor. Evidently something has been done to aid poorer county residents, but, surprise, money is running out. Money runs out when you give it away. Free dental work is a good deal for the patient and an open-ended disaster for the taxpayer.
In the short run perhaps charities may step in to plug gaps. In the long run we need to return dental and more importantly, medical expenses, to the laps of those who need the services — individuals.
We had a market-based system at one time and it worked with fewer complaints and worry and less paperwork than now. The more we institutionalize health care and look for someone else to solve its cost overruns the worse it gets.
Years ago people feared rescinding fixed energy prices, but price controls died, and market forces stabilized prices. Even today with terror-based premiums in its pricing, energy remains a pretty good deal — and if not cheap, it still is plentiful.
I see why the county commissioners cut the funds flow. Perhaps other organizations can take up the slack. In the long run we citizens should tackle our own costs of dental care and contribute to charities that look after those who may need help.
The writer lives in Greensboro.