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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed
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To: Mike da bear who wrote (243743)6/3/2003 4:03:52 PM
From: GraceZ  Read Replies (1) of 436258
 
The $800 is an artificial price caused by the insurance company leaning on the group of doctors, the $2400 is the uninsured making up the difference. In theory without the existence of insurance the price for all would most likely fall somewhere between those two extremes. Its insurance which distorts the pricing mechanism.

Back in the days when no one had insurance for braces, people still had a variance in what they paid. I remember being a poor kid living near a wealthy neighborhood. I needed braces. My dentist sent me to an orthodontist who was known to give breaks to poor kids while making a bundle off the wealthy customers. I went there with the proposition that I'd pay him some sum of money from the $30 week I made babysitting. I have to hand it to him, he didn't burst out laughing (I had no idea just how much money braces cost or how long it would have taken me to pay for them- $6k back in 1972) and he said that we'd talk about the charges (which we never did, I wound up working summers for his family for five years).

He had the attitude like a lot of dentists and doctors had back then that he'd rather give the poor the same care as the well off in his regular practice instead of donating his time to give poor quality care in a clinic. You won't find many like him now because the uninsured and poor have been forced on care givers, its no longer voluntary.
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