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A comment on I Went to 50 Different Dentists: Almost All Gave a Different Diagnosis. Parent comment

Re:I Went to 50 Different Dentists: Almost All Gave a Differ... by ROTMetro on Sunday August 06, 2023 @04:50PM (#37026583)
I have jank government insurance and this is not true. When I got out of prison and had no insurance I went to the city's clinics. Wait times have never been an issue (at most was two weeks for specialist). The doctors in the clinic were also friggin amazing doctors/people. I had a ton of shame around getting out of prison, some much shame about needing to get tests ran for HIV/Hep from being in prison but they were so good about it all (all came out negative so woohoo).

Now dentists...when we had money we went to a family friend. He still totally f'd us and did unnecessary work. It's only now that I have a cash only country dentist that I trust my dentist again. Crazy part is the cash only dentist ends up being cheaper than my previous copay/premiums insurance dentists.

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Re:I Went to 50 Different Dentists: Almost All Gave a Differ... by tyg13 on Sunday August 06, 2023 @05:04PM (#37026742)
I'm always surprised when people leave comments like these, based on nothing but N=1 anecdata. You don't have any authority to say something like "this is not true" with regards to the whole of the American healthcare experience. Compared to my own personal experience, yours was uncommonly-good. Wait times for specialists for my SO's heart condition are routinely several months out.
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Re:I Went to 50 Different Dentists: Almost All Gave a Differ... by zdragnar on Sunday August 06, 2023 @06:55PM (#37027794)
What this demonstrates is that wait times are widely variable by specialty and region. Arguments like "for most Americans" are wrong on their face, because most Americans don't live in the same area or have the same issues.

My wife and I have both had to see various specialists. Some had very long wait times, many didn't, and of those that did, we were (fortunately) able to call around to different clinics to find one that wasn't too bad.

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Re:I Went to 50 Different Dentists: Almost All Gave a Differ... by DropInIn on Monday August 07, 2023 @04:19PM (#37040422)
"Most" comes from the actual data

The exceptions are part of that data set

Really...

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Re:I Went to 50 Different Dentists: Almost All Gave a Differ... by giantg2 on Sunday August 06, 2023 @07:41PM (#37028156)
To be fair, their statement of n=1 is more evidence than the other person posted (comment without any evidence). Although both are weak.
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Re:I Went to 50 Different Dentists: Almost All Gave a Differ... by mikeyouse on Monday August 07, 2023 @02:36PM (#37038666)
I mean, n=1 of a guy that had a good experience -- n=roughly 28,000,000 with no health insurance at all. These don't seem like two sides of the same coin in my view.
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Re:I Went to 50 Different Dentists: Almost All Gave a Differ... by giantg2 on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:59PM (#37042631)
I'd the original comment actually mentioned that and laid out a theory behind it, that would be different (is that health insurance or dental insurance?). Even your comment about uninsured people doesn't fully connect the dots or explain what their experiences are, as some people in these comments are stating that cash dentists are cheaper/easier to deal with than with insurance. I have had experiences that also back this up.
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