Where Is The Tooth Fairy When You Need Her?

Yesterday morning, we got up, got our showers, got dressed, and I told my wife that I was going to go make a run for some coffee and pastries. I had been telling her about this awesome place called Pantera's out in Wynnewood for some time. I told her how good their fresh bread (cooked on the premises) was, along with their other pastries.

On this morning, I drove out to Panteras and got a bearclaw, cherry danish, and croissant with butter. I also got an english muffin with ham, egg, and cheese for my wife, a large tumbler of coffee, and some orange juice. The plan was, we were going to eat a light weight continental breakfast, listen to some John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins while vaccuming, wiping down the baseboards, and doing the laundry.

There's a joke that goes... "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans" and it still holds true. I was munching and sipping coffee, when I felt something foreign in my mouth that could have been a walnut from my bearclaw (or not) so, I spit it out into my hand. It was my tooth... one of the reconstructed teeth from the back of my mouth that was put there after my last root canal in 2006.

I called the emergency unit of the hospital that I use according to my health insurance plan. They told me that they didn't have a dentist on duty (it being Sunday and all) but I should come down anyway and be seen. They told me to make sure that I brought my photo ID, my insurance card, and a list of any and all medications I was taking. Good Deal.

So, I'm in the emergency room and I have to say, I was waited on faster than I thought I would be with this being Philadelphia and I being a "knee-grow". I was told upfront that I had to pay a $50.00 co-pay and that my provider would pay the rest. The rest? What rest? They hadn't done anything yet! After I paid, my blood pressure and temperature were taken and both were a little high. (I guess so... you just took $50.00 bucks from me!)

The doctor was nice so I didn't go off, the way I had planned to. She informed me that there was no dentist on-site and that I would have to go to the dental facility that did the original work tomorrow. Her assistant took an x-ray of my mouth, gave me something to wash my mouth out, and gave me a prescription for some penicilian to keep my mouth from getting infected any futher. My parking at the hospital was validated so my final cost was $5.00. The cost to get the penicillin prescription filled was also $5.00.

Today, I'm going to my dentist, who is right down the street from where I work, and I'll have to give them a $20.00 co-pay to see me. By the time you read this, the health care industry will have gotten a total of $80.00 from me already and they will not have done a thing for me yet! Do you see where I'm going with this? I'm insured! What would happen to some poor bastard without insurance? They'd be SOL! Several people have profited from me without a thing being done. Do you want to bet that I'm going to be hit with yet another partial payment after the reconstructive work is done?

Do you mean to tell me that any of you can read this and still not think that we've got a shell game going on as far as health care is concerned? This is a joke... a straight rip-off and these guys are no more than gangsters with suits on. Tony Soprano has more honor and integrity than the people in the health care game. At least, you know up front that he's a gangster!