Another of Britain’s National Health Service debacles is hard to chew on, as found by Chris Reed, an editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune, who relays to us an essay by a state-run medicine supporting former U of Chicago PoliSci professor and aide to former Dem Senator Bill Bradley. She now lives in Britain.
[Dentists] are now paid a flat rate covering the amount of work they are contracted to do each year, which is measured in UDAs (units of dental activity)…. While these reforms were supposed to increase access to NHS dentists, in practice, they've had the opposite effect. NHS estimates suggest that nearly 1 million fewer people have access to an NHS dentist than they did three years ago. According to a citizen's advice survey carried out in early 2008, approximately 7.4 million people hadn't been to an NHS dentist since April 2006 because of difficulties in finding one…. The incentives set up by the new system also mean that dentists are more likely to "under-treat," i.e., to fail to provide complex (and costly) treatment, even if it's clinically necessary. After all, they are now paid the same to perform a root canal as they are to pull a tooth. Not surprisingly, the number of complex procedures has dropped precipitously in the last few years.
Remember to smile when you say ObamaCare:
Tracked: Aug 07, 20:19
I’ll admit it: I’m pretty bad about going to the doctor — though, had John Edwards won the presidency, I’d be forced to go! But I do see my dentist regularly. To me, the doctor is like the mechanic working on a breakdown, whil...
Tracked: Aug 07, 20:20