Tuesday, January 8, 2013

High Cost of Dental Education Contributes to Patients' Costs

I recently read two separate articles that mentioned the cost of dental education.  One article mentioned $195,000 and the other article mentioned $250,000.   On top of this many doctors are faced with the costs of opening their own practice which is generally also quite expensive.

I read a quote that somewhere around $400,000 is typical.  With that plus the education debt can you imagine the interest alone? 

The problem, I believe, has to do in part with the high costs of education.  The patients are, at some point, going to be the ones who bear these costs.   As we know many insurance policies don't cover dental 100%.  The copays end up being quite high.  Many people are left out in the cold in regards to dental insurance. 

How do we bring down the expensive costs of education and therefore the overall costs to dental health for regular people?   I think this problem exists across a wide range of professions as well as just 'normal' degrees.

Someone told me that just to get a BS degree at a certain university in St. Louis, it often costs students $200,000.

That's interesting considering that those students could have had a full dental education at that rate.  The costs of education are off the scale and far beyond what should be the norm.

Is it that teacher's salaries are too high?   That buildings have to be maintained?   As you know it does often seem that universities are ever expanding.   They are taking in an awful lot of cash.

Universities also have another source of funding.   Researchers typically need to be sponsored by a University in order to conduct their research.   The University takes part of every funding grant for themselves as the 'administrators' of the research.

One researcher told me that he typically has to propose a grant at twice what it would cost him to do the research because the University takes 50% for themselves!   What are they doing with all that money?   On top of that tuition keeps getting higher every year or every couple of years.

A school I attended seemed to be raising tuition every single semester.   It was outrageous then and it is outrageous today.

It's time to rein in the costs of education because it affects everyone.   I want to know where all these incredible sums of money are going too.   There should be an audit and schools should be forced to curtail their spending and lower tuition rates.

Once that happens, perhaps doctors won't be under so much pressure to charge a lot for their services?    I dislike the high costs associated with health care including dental health care.   I think it is time that this situation be rectified.  But who will make that happen?   Unfortunately,  I don't think much is going to change anytime soon.

Doctors and, in turn, patients will continue bearing the high costs of Universities and education until something is done to fix the system.  



Sincerely,

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1-888-586-6849

PS:  With costs for care so high, it really pays to take prevention seriously,  check out the top tool I think can be helpful to families in this regard.  

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