I had to get a root canal the other day. The dentist had to wait to see if my insurance would cover it because I had recently had a different root canal and “they sometimes don’t pay for more than one.”
They had to clamp down, since so many people were getting root canals for shits and giggles. /s
You ain’t need but the one toof ya fancy sum bitch.
I know this isn’t dental related, but I couldn’t see a therapist and a psychiatrist in the same day (virtually) because insurance wouldn’t cover that.
I’ve been putting off having two root canals/fillings/caps for years because I don’t feel like spending thousands on it, in case they don’t cover it. I know I should get this done before people tell me horror stories…again.
I keep on having this debate with my dad. He’s 73 and I’m 37. One night he was like “people from your generation want to buy a ‘starter home’ and a vacation home, and then a few years later buy a bigger home!” and I was like “no one in my generation is even thinking about buying a vacation home when they can barely make a livable wage in a lot of fields.” Teachers make about $25/hour (about 35-40k/year) and they deal with tons of shit from the faculty, state, and students themselves. I was making $112k/year working in IT and could barely afford to live by myself in or close to Manhattan.
Edit: just for context, my rent was $2500/month for a 500 sq ft 1 bedroom apartment about 30-45 minutes from Manhattan. The sales tax rate in NYC is 10%. A burger and a beer can easily cost you $20.
The (boomer) generation holds bizarrely strong biases, it could be they subconsciously they do it to avoid admitting they’ve screwed their kids with their political votes, or more likely they simply only care about getting their own and aren’t thinking far enough ahead to realize their being snookered and driving the bus off a cliff.
$112k/yr is a crazy amount of money; I also work in IT in a pretty high up position, I wish I even made half that…
Same.
I worked for Disney+ (got laid off about a month ago) as a Linux Systems Engineer, so it’s not like I worked for a small company doing Windows desktop support (I was making 50k/year doing that in NYC, $30k/year doing the same thing about 3 hours south in NJ). It is a significant amount of money, but the taxes screwed me, I’d only see about 85k of it, couple that with 10% tax on everything and the increased prices of living in the most expensive city in the US and it’s not as much as you think it is. About 60% of my monthly income went to rent and bills.
Fair enough! I got offered a job at Nintendo once, probably should’ve taken it in retrospect :(
Yeah, big companies are good but also kinda suck because they lay you off at the drop of a hat as soon as they don’t make as much as they expect.
Solution: enlist in the military! /s
i feel so bad for my US brothers i cant even crack a joke about being too european or something
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No it’s very expensive here, but funding is quite different.
FYI this post is mostly BS.
70 percent of people in the EU own homes. In the US it’s 65 percent.
While it is lower among millennials, especially compared to Boomers at their age, the majority of them still own homes. While I don’t have stats on Gen Z, the oldest among them is 25.
Almost all dental issues can be avoided with preventative measures. Virtually every single white collar job offers dental. Some blue collar jobs do. If your job does not offer dental, it’s available on the ACA exchange for like $20/month.
Again, despite what reddit would have you believe about us all being paid poverty wages, the vast majority of Americans can afford dental.
Finally, I don’t understand why reddit sees the fact that Boomers got married and had kids at like 21 on the late end a good thing. Basically everyone acknowledges marrying young is absolutely idiotic most of the time. Even more people acknowledge that having kids is a dumb idea. Boomers were forced into that. There’s a huge reason a ton of Boomer Humor is about hating your spouse.
Also at this point someone with Boomer parents is in their thirties or forties. Someone with Boomer parents who came of age when the economy was amazing and houses were dirt cheap is 50+. If you can’t afford dental at that age, you’ve fucked up big-time somewhere along the way.
Almost all dental issues can be avoided with preventative measures. Virtually every single white collar job offers dental. Some blue collar jobs do. If your job does not offer dental, it’s available on the ACA exchange for like $20/month.
The problem is is that insurance is a scam, you pay out the ass monthly for something you may need to use at some point in the future.
Exactly! I take fastidious care of my teeth - I’ve only ever had 1 cavity 10 years ago - but recently I broke the filling and the dentist said it has to be a crown. I have dental insurance that covers two cleanings per year and just like u said, I still had to pay $500 for the crown. That was a big setback.
You know I’m starting to realize why so many people in this thread have dental issues.
Go to the dentist, even if your teeth are currently fine.
Yeah, just to sit there in the waiting room for 2 hours, have them brush your teeth for you, and be like “yeah, everything looks good. come back in six months!”. I can brush my own teeth, thanks.
“Everything looks good, come back in 6 months.”
(6 months later)
“Looks like you need 2 root canals and a crown.”
The point of insurance is supposed to be cover surprises because everyone eventually has a few. Typical dental coverage nowadays isn’t really insurance at all, it’s a payment plan. I literally opted out of insurance in a year where I expected I needed dental work and it saved me money.
…how old are you?
37
70 percent of people in the EU own homes. In the US it’s 65 percent.
how many people own a home is not a measure of anything…
Yes it is? It’s a measure of how many people were able to purchase a home.
This is directly relevant to this post, which say that modern day Americans can’t dental insurance, much less homes.
Yes it is? It’s a measure of how many people were able to purchase a home.
which doesnt say anything about the economic conditions of a country.
The above meme:
My parents in their thirties: Let’s buy this house.
Me in my thirties: I can’t afford teeth.
As I said, that is BS.
my man its clearly made more absurd for comedic purposes this community is called Memes not “100% realistic comic depictions of economic conditions”, you cant deny health insurance is a big problem for many people in US.
Have you read any of the top comment threads? People are 100 percent taking this at face value.
You know dental has limits right? You’ll typically run up or blow by them after your first filling.
Yes. However, the vast majority of dental issues can be solved by regular dentist appointments.
In addition, I’m pretty sure people are straight up making up stuff. Spending $700 before you break even on dental insurance is straight up fiction.
I openly question how many people in their 30s (or late 20s) are in this thread. A lot of this narrative simply isn’t true for most people that age.
Also OPs parents were boomers who had children in their 30s they were most likely more affluent than average boomers
In addition, I’m pretty sure people are straight up making up stuff. Spending $700 before you break even on dental insurance is straight up fiction.
My last two companies, the dental plan was $50/mo (or a total of $600/yr). Other than having only a $25 copay for cleaning, it was between 10% and 20% coinsure with a $1000 limit.
That means optimistically, I needed to spend about $2500 to break even on the most optimistic coinsure, and my benefits disappeared after I spent $5000 (and only would cost the insurance company $400 if I spent every penny).
I literally mathed it out in a year I needed 2 root canals and it would have been cheaper to NOT have the plan. And that was before I discovered the fact my office had special “uninsured assistance” that wasn’t driven by income.
Many Dental plans are an absolute scam. Part of the problem on them is that most people in some areas ONLY get dental insurance if they know they’re going to need it. Makes it hard to have a price that works. It’s part of why I have always supported government-paid insurance for medical and dental issues.
Okay so if you’re actually not lying, then opt out of your insurance plan and buy a delta dental plan via their exchange or the website. It’s quite literally half the cost and comes with free preventative services.
I kinda thought I’d stop hearing the constant bad-faith accusations when I left reddit. I suppose not.
Just went to the Delta site and checked my state. The ONLY plan in my state they have that covers non-trivial work is $60/mo with a maximum coverage of $1000. The 80% (I know Delta employees… no dentist I would use is in their network) coverage after copay is nice, but you’re still paying $700+ out of pocket for a potential $1000 total coverage. And unless you think I’m lying about the “Uninsured discount”, it means if my dentist gives me a $300 discount on work for being uninsured (they do), I still end up ahead.
So thank you for implying I’m lying and then giving me the directions to prove my point.
Yo, it’s not Reddit
How good is this $20 dental insurance? I work for a place with decent benefits and with coinsurance, co-pays and the cost we would have to have $700 worth of dental work a year just to break even. $1,000 worth of work would save us $180 vs out of pocket… and it’s capped at $1k.
Dental insurance usually comes with 2 teeth cleanings a year, and one set of xrays. These are 100 percent covered.
This layout is the more or less standard delta dental PPO. It’s used by the vast majority of employers across the country.
Employers also get group discounts, so it’s usually something like $10. The total cost is $120 a year if you don’t need dental work.
You have one of the worst dental plans possible.
A majority definitely don’t. The stats I’m seeing put it at around 45% for millennials, and under 35 it’s just under 40%
Okay, the fact that Lemmy (which owes it’s popularity to the fact that reddit killed third party apps) thinks this is ridiculous.
I can’t wait for Lemmy apps to come out that let me ban keywords. I swear you people invent scenarios to rage over.
Take it up with the US Government.
Thanks for the citation - 52% is just barely a majority, but technically correct!
So uh, the rest of the article vibes pretty strongly with the OP. Millennials are worse off than their parents
The meme said that their parents in their thirties were buying homes, and they can’t even afford dental.
The majority of millennials have bought homes.
More importantly, the overwhelming people in the US can afford dental.
You guys make up scenarios to push BS narratives. Then spam the word “capitalism” ignoring the fact that the majority of the world runs under capitalism.
If OP can’t afford a house or dental then the meme is accurate to them and millions like them. Dental insurance isn’t guaranteed, after all. Capitalism requires winners and losers, and losers don’t get houses or dental insurance.
Like, my dude, there are Americans that can’t afford to take $20 off every paycheck (and that shit only covers cleanings, hope you don’t get a chipped tooth!)
Seriously, it’s just a big strawman argument. The idea that a certain percentage of people own homes says nothing about the affordability of said homes. The percentage of millenials that own homes are consistently using drastically higher percentages of their income than previous generations. And the Healthcare crisis in the US speaks for itself. People arguing against this just want to dance around the topic and not actually argue the real point.
Okay, first you need a civics lessons. Capitalism isn’t a governmental system, it’s an economic system.
This economic system is widely used across the world. This includes most of Europe. Acting like this is just an invitable part of capitalism ignores the fact that the government can pass laws to create a social safety net.
They did. People living at or slightly above the poverty line have dental coverage through Medicaid. People with income above that threshold and no not have dental offered by their job have access to subsidies through the ACA.
Are there people who can’t afford dental? Sure. America is a massive country. However acting like it’s in any way common is insane.
So untrue, just put it downpayment on a 30 yr fixed loan for some dentures.
Damn. You got me there. :D
Luxury bones
That’s what they’ll be called in insurance plans.
Feels like we’re already nearing Mad Max with a dash of Blade Runner for an appetizer.
I know. I wish we lived in a communist dystopia.
This cuts too deep
What stings is realizing one of the few hopes for a home these days is the passing of a parent.
Even worse, realizing that still isn’t enough
I want to laugh but man this hits close to home.
Pretty damn far from a home as well
I know what you mean, these days all we can do is try to laugh everything off.
I mean it could be worse. In an alternate timeline, you could be living in world where the nazis built nukes first and America becomes a fascist puppet state.
Don’t forget trying to figure out how much you can eat daily! A second meal is a treat!
I’ve noticed I’m eating cheap ramen again, feels like a step backwards and doesn’t sit as easily.
It’s less satisfying now that I’m in my 40s than it was when I was in college.
Definitely feels that way.
What at-home stuff can you do to maintain your teeth? Brushing and flossing twice a day just doesn’t cut it. Brown stuff still eventually builds up around the edges and right above the gum line (although it does take quite a few years). Being obsessive about dental hygiene only delays the buildup and is not sustainable on its own. I may be able to afford dentist appointments now but by the way society is headed, that may not be the case 10 years from now or even next month.
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I’m so sorry to hear what you’re dealing with. I think the most important thing we can try to take from the pains, is to try treating others better than we were treated, despite how difficult it might be.
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Oh, that’s not what I meant. I was just trying to say us being positive can hopefully help others do the same.
You mean your luxury bones?
