It dawned on my today while taking my child to the dentist how messed up the whole thing is. Here is this place that charges an arm and a leg to "clean" your teeth several times a year, but they only really make real money if you need fillings, crowns, root canals and all sorts of other shit.
Today we got there and in spite of just having X rays done last week at a different place, this new place wanted their "own" set of x rays... of course at an additional cost of $400 and increased radiation exposure for my child. Then, they came up with a 4 stage plan over $5000 to fix four small cavities she has, including crowns and sedation and the whole 9 yards. Not to mention the manipulation they use on young kids. All their favourite disney shows playing, all the free toys and they even told her they were going to maybe put a "sparkly elsa tooth" in her mouth like WTF....
I declined the extra xrays, which they were shocked about. And left saying I would think about it. But as I left I realized that none of these 20 or 30 staff members at the clinic would have jobs if they weren't bringing in this kind of revenue.
But what a scam the whole thing is! If they were truly cleaning teeth properly they should have worked themselves out of a job long ago. Same thing with doctors and the relationship to pharmaceutical companies. The whole thing is a big scam!
I was told by a very wealthy friend several years ago to pay nothing on any medical bills other than copays. I have since heard the same from others and now have practical knowledge as well. I pay big money for my insurance as a self employed contractor. I always pay my copays when I go for office calls. Any remaining debt they claim is theft.
I just spent a month in the hospital near death for 2 weeks. I had life saving surgery. My insurance paid out well over 250k. Ive started to get bills from every doctor I saw for costs exceeding insurance. Some of these doctors did nothing but consult for 5 minutes and want 5k from me.
I toss them all in the trash. It doesnt effect my credit at all. The one good thing the CFPB did was remove medical bills from credit reports. I think what is going on is that all these extras are basically the paying patients subsidizing those who use the emergency room as their PCP. So fuck them, I pay enough.