And ears. Not covered (in the USA, at least) because "just about everyone suffers hearing loss at some point in their life" (aka not a profit maker) so might as well not cover it at all for anyone, including those with profound loss from birth...
For dental, at least, it's because there are two ways to treat issues with your teeth: extract them or repair them.
If you go to the emergency room with tooth pain because of some cavity that gets infected, a doctor there can and will extract it. And your insurance will cover this as a medical expense (unless the doctor was an actual dentist and charges as such). That's also why wisdom tooth extraction is often covered by medical insurance.
But if you want to preserve that tooth, you need a dentist, with specialized skills and tools, which are far more expensive.
Insurance companies get away with not paying for dental work because "technically" you don't need your teeth to eat, and "technically" you don't need all of them to chew, and "technically" you can be perfectly healthy without any teeth at all. QED, they argue trying to save your teeth is a cosmetic expense.
And they got away with that reasoning. And they still do.
The visible state of a person’s teeth is far too useful a proxy for their position in the socioeconomic hierarchy to ever be sacrificed by making dental care affordable.
Oh it’s worse than that. Dental and eye insurance are separate except for when the issue you have is bad enough to need an oral surgeon or an ophthalmologist. So the preventative and maintenance care that avoids problems with your teeth and eyes isn’t covered. And basic treatments aren’t covered.
This is like saying sorry, we don’t cover cold and flu medicine, we wait until it’s pneumonia to cover your issue.
Vision insurance is garbage too if you actually have vision problems. My vision is so bad I have to have specialty lenses, which of course aren’t covered. It’s usually cheaper to just pay cash.
Oh snap it's the once every two years my vision insurance covers new frames! Oh hey it doesn't cover contact lenses... Also it only covers $125 worth of frames and lenses $50.
But nowadays lenses are free and frames from any eye doctor that isn't Walmart are all $180+... But wait... The lenses may be free but the coatings aren't... Even if plastic is a hot glarey mess with antireflective... But sorry, coatings aren't covered because they aren't lenses... You see, despite being called lens coating, and becoming part of the lens once coated... Just like a door handle isn't just a handle... We only pay for lenses... Not lens coating...
Also you still need the health insurance if they need to do anything extra like retinal imaging, motion testing, etc...
Anyone that hates on single payer/universal healthcare needs a swift kick to the taint.
Anecdotally I just went for the eye and contact exam that was covered, took my prescription to Eyebuydirect, and in the last year I bought 3 pairs of glasses from them for less than $150 (2 in one transaction, one in another).They aren't crap quality and their in house, i.e. not name brand, frames are pretty cheap and good looking.
I am not a sponsored corporate shill, but so far I have nothing bad to say about them.
That's actually who I had my insurance reimburse me through for the frames lol.
There were a couple other decent sites but I found my look on there the best.
Unfortunately my head is gigantic, both metaphorically and literally so finding wide enough glasses is a pain. Been getting the usual post frame change headaches with both XL pairs.
i mean really i know we're a broken awful country but whenever this started in like 1890 how was the first guy who thought of this not taken out into the fields by a ragtag vigilante group
Still heavily subsidised, it's not like we are paying "full price".
NHS dental charges
There are 3 NHS charge bands:
Band 1: £25.80
Covers an examination, diagnosis and advice. If necessary, it also includes X-rays, a scale and polish (if clinically needed), and planning for further treatment.
Band 2: £70.70
Covers all treatment included in Band 1, plus additional treatment, such as fillings, root canal treatment and removing teeth (extractions).
Band 3: £306.80
Covers all treatment included in Bands 1 and 2, plus more complex procedures, such as crowns, dentures and bridges.
Yeah myself and several people I know haven't been in more years than I'd like to say. When their estimates are more than $15k you decide to wait a bit longer.
And it has greatly improved British teeth. The old stereotype of bad British teeth was because of how things were before the NHS. My English father's teeth were so bad that he ended up having to go to Costa Rica to get the surgery done because it would have cost $10,000 in the U.S. out of pocket. He was born in 1931, so the NHS didn't even exist until he was 17, but he always considered it the greatest accomplishment that Britain had achieved (my father was also a die-hard socialist who bragged about how he booed Churchill when Churchill visited his high school). He'd be pretty appalled at the state of it now.
Greece! I was exaggerating a bit, I was talking about OBGYNs. But there are 5-10 available doctors per month in a 1mil people province for example, so people tend to just go private.
You are pretty close. The American Medical Association, (AMA), and the American Dental Association, (ADA), are the 2 different medical organizations that represent each group. Originally, they tried to set up one association but the dentists decided to form their own group. This has lead to group bargaining with insurance companies. Which leads to separate policies being needed.
Medical insurance absolutely covers your eyes and teeth, it just doesn't cover optometrist or dentist services. It covers related medical doctor services, like ophthalmologists or periodontists. Also dental and vision insurance in my experience has been way cheaper and easier to use than medical insurance, I don't want them to be part of my medical insurance lol