Great Moments in Socialized Health Care #2

Here’s a story about British dentists (US readers, insert your joke here).

Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) changed its contract with dentists in 2006, to save costs.  The result is dentists routinely pulling teeth that they would have treated under the old contract:

The data showed a 45.5 per cent decrease in the number of treatments where a bridge was fitted, from 146,000 to 80,000.   There was also a 39.4 per cent decrease in the number of courses of treatment which included root canal, from 907,000 to 549,000.   The proportion of treatments involving a scale and polish or an x-ray have fallen however extractions have increased from 6.9 per cent of treatments to 7.5 per cent.

Of course, the problem of poor dentistry is not a problem for the millions of Brits unable to even access a dentist.

Say goodbye to those flashy white smiles, America.