I went to the dentist this morning. Actually, I went to the dentist last month too, for an emergency visit due to tooth pain. Both experiences were fine. But this morning’s experience was enjoyable. Rarely do you hear that about visits to the dentist’s office.
Before last month’s visit, I hadn’t been to the dentist for a couple years. That’s remarkable, because I’ve gotten a dental check-up every six months since I was a child. However, several years ago, I lost the health insurance that covered my dentist. I’d pay cash for dental visits, but that was expensive. Then, a couple years ago, I got new health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. “Obama Care”) but my prior dentist, of 25 years, didn’t participate in the new plan. So, I needed to find a new dentist. That felt like an onerous task with only a poor outcome: when I looked through the listings, all the dentists were in down-market neighborhoods or had foreign-sounding names. I realize that reveals a bias and, honestly, I’m ashamed of that. However, I have it.
Eventually I found a dentist in a decent neighborhood with a name I could confidently pronounce and, last month, I went for an emergency visit. I wasn’t impressed (I thought he looked unhealthy) but he resolved the problem and quite quickly at that. Basically, it was a positive experience and I made an appointment for today, with a different dentist in the same office for a cleaning. I liked this dentist. So, I feel like I’ve finally found a new dentist.
Having a positive experience with a healthcare provider, one that I didn’t need to pay a fortune to visit, that’s basically just a good life experience.
Satisfactory healthcare should be a fundamental aspect of a wealthy society, but that it exists at all, and that progress in the medical profession is such that, incrementally, over time, decent care becomes available at low cost — I fear my bar is too low, but this is evidence of a friendly universe.
Q
