Keeping teeth in your mouth as you grow old should not be a luxury in this country.

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Woodswalker]

1. My cousin visited from Germany three years ago

He said to me with his heavy German accent, Vhy are zo many people here with teeth missing. When I told him he just gave me a blank stare

[XanaDUer2]

2. Ain't America grand? Nt

[LakeArenal]

12. Great again?

[Diamond_Dog]

3. The eternal question

Is why do so many Americans vote against their own self interest?

[ShazamIam]

4. Yes, they vote for emotional reasons, and the facebook and other propaganda is fear and anger

distrust, and rage as the solution.

[KPN]

5. Simple. They've been duped.

[OldBaldy1701E]

16. Hear Hear! (n/t)

[piddyprints]

8. The average American

“isn’t into politics.” They really don’t care what’s going on as long as they’re ok. If they’re not ok, they blame the current President... but only if the President is a Democrat. (Thanks, Fox and FB!). Doesn’t matter who’s in control of Congress, because they don’t understand how things actually work.

I know someone who never votes for President. But he hates Biden because the economy sucks. Proof? His wife got laid off. End of story. So he wants TFG back. He does not watch Fox. He just doesn’t want to hear facts or that President Biden has actually saved the economy.

[Diamond_Dog]

21. That is so true!

Or else they’re just too lazy to learn anything about how politics and our country works, so they just shrug and say “Both sides are corrupt.”

[samplegirl]

39. I've heard that one to many

times.

[dchill]

27. He probably has huge earwax buildup, too.

Maintenance is key to knowledge, too.

[LakeArenal]

13. To own libs, of course.

[Martin Eden]

25. Culture wars keep them fired up

For all the wrong reasons.

[mitch96]

26. Agree... If you are not part of the 1%... why vote like one? nt

[luv2fly]

32. So many have never been outside their little circles

They know no other cultures or people or places and are just so damn ignorant.

[NBachers]

6. I'm 72. I'll be working until at least 2025 to pay off my 401k for the money I borrowed to pay off

my $58,000 bill for my complete implants and teeth.

Am I glad I got ’em? Sure! But it’s sure dipping into my retirement cushion. At this point, I’m hoping I live long enough to pay myself back. At least my skeleton will have nice gleaming teeth a hundred years from now.

[OldBaldy1701E]

17. At least you had the means to get them replaced. I am down past the halfway point. (n/t)

[ShazzieB]

34. Yes, being able come up with the money one way or another is something a lot of people can't do.

Ask me how I know.

[OldBaldy1701E]

38. Exactly.

Hell, being able to come up with it by any means necessary is beyond a sizeable percentage of the population in this country.

(We really need the philosophy of IDIC these days, let me tell you...)

[Evolve Dammit]

29. That's a LOT of money. Dammit! We should at least be on par with Solvenia. But we're not. We are

slaves to the 1% who own it all.

[piddyprints]

7. We have a

Medicare advantage plan that covers eyes and teeth… sort of.

Single vision reading glasses might be covered well enough, but nothing close to what you need for bifocals, transitions, etc. At least the exam is covered, but with a copay. Fortunately, we buy a separate VSP policy. If Medicare did that, it would be awesome!

The dental is excellent. But there seems to be no uniformity in the way these plans cover things, or even what’s offered in different areas.

I haven’t tried the hearing benefit. They did tell me that I can get a free screening. But then what? Does anyone cover hearing aids?

Bernie is on to something, no doubt about it. I’m appalled that not one Republican can muster some humanity to support expansion. Hell, I’m appalled that it’s such a hard sell for all 50 Democrats!

BTW, we went for an advantage plan mostly because there is no out of pocket limit with traditional Medicare… unless that’s changed since we joined. That alone scares the shit out of me and is something that should be addressed.

[Meowmee]

15. They are only given minimal coverage on some medicare plans

Coscto has the best prices. Their own brand is 1399 for a 5000 hearing aid.

[Demsrule86]

18. Dental and vision sucks everywhere these days.

[George II]

9. Where is he today?

[SaintLouisBlues]

10. In your kitchen

[Hortensis]

11. On the Democratic Party bandwagon speaking up for

the Democratic Party's Biden plan.

[Meowmee]

14. Neither should getting glasses, hearing aids

Or many other numerous health needs. I suspect they are going to get more of the same.

[MFM008]

19. I need 6 caps

And 3 fillings. One large filling falls out all the time and
I put it back in. Chances are zero of getting anything fixed just pulled. Medicaid will only pull them that's it.
Im 62.

[LittleGirl]

20. The dirty little secret

Is that medical care here covers things below the neck. Never the head, it seems.

[MissMillie]

22. Well, actually... not at any age (n/t)

.

[oldsoftie]

23. So submit a bill that does just that with nothing else added.

I've suggested this before; when we have a program that almost everyone wants, why not just prepare a bill that deals only with THAT issue? What kills many of these programs is adding things that may NOT be so popular.

Same with negotiating drug prices; submit a bill that only deals with that. Make members show their votes for or against it.

[DallasNE]

24. My Dentist Of Decades

Decided about 12-15 years ago to drop out of all networks because the networks would not pay what he thought his work was worth. At first insurance would pay half so I could live with it. Then the insurance stopped paying anything. The problem also is the slow eroding of former benefits. We see similar problems with annual increases in Social Security benefits where "chained indexing" is used for the inflation adjustment. That covers at most half of actual inflation. That is so we can have more tax cuts for the billionaires. It is how trickle down works.

[Evolve Dammit]

31. All the corporate entities want control and price fixing, denial of benefits, increased deductibles

and co-pays. It gets worse every damn year. They force the physicians to "participate" and be "in network" with various tiers of care depending on who is a "preferred provider." It is truly designed to fuck the consumer and take as much money from your wallet, 401 or wherever. They don't care, they will just turn you over to their "collection agencies" to hound you to the end of time and virtually no humans are involved. It's all automated, robo-call harassment. I really hate where we have gone.

[demosurvivor]

28. You're absolutely right. Keeping teeth in your mouth as you grow old should ...

Last edited Sun Oct 24, 2021, 07:42 PM - Edit history (1)

30K per arch? Yep, that's what it costs at Clear Choice. It's ridiculous. Most seniors can't afford this, so you know where this goes. No teeth to eat with. Bernie has the right idea, but there is no way in hell the government will pay for this. Even snap on dentures cost 12K. Insurance sucks. There is no way on hell any of this will finally be addressed before I die(I'm in my 60's). The weird part. Many families have had messed up teeth from birth. And we all know how that ends up. I don't care how many times you brush/floss those teeth daily.

This problem will never go away, and it will continue to be a luxury to have teeth til the day you die. Ya better start saving now. The price goes up every year.

[Xoan]

30. How dare Americans...

Think they are entitled to benefits of being an American.

: Sarcasm:

[luv2fly]

33. That the head is not part of the rest of the body is ridiculous

Whoever pulled eyes and teeth out of general medical care a long time ago was a real bastard.

I'm sure that is a somewhat naive comment but you get my drift.

[orleans]

35. i totally get your drift--and i love it; i don't believe that ever occurred to me to think

that someone had that stupid idea to begin with and now i'm wondering where it came from

it was worth tweeting about

Link to tweet

@SenSanders "That the head is not part of the rest of the body is ridiculous. Whoever pulled eyes and teeth out of general medical care a long time ago was a real bastard." -luv2fly on democraticunderground

(well said, luv2fly! thank you)

[ShazzieB]

36. Eyes, teeth, AND ears.

I agree 100% with your comment, but wanted to add that.

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that vision, hearing, and dental care are not covered by most HEALTH CARE coverage. Who gets to decide that those things are not as much a part of my HEALTH as other parts of my body?

The things that they choose not to cover are really arbitrary. For example, I'm being treated for an eye problem that IS covered by my health insurance. But when they do a refraction test (the one where they show you letters in different sizes and ask you which ones you can read), THAT is not covered at all, even though they need to do it periodically to check whether/how much my vision is improving.

It. Makes. No. Bloody. Sense.

[JudyM]

37. I hope people are listening, because the media isn't doing much of a job of communicating this.

[DiamondShark]

40. 100% in support of this.

What Senate Bill should I reference in my letters to my two Democratic Senators?