Dentist experience

[Bruce]

Another option to consider is if the National Guard is conducted medical operations in your area. For the last three years, there have been military clinics set up in various locations in Kentucky, providing free care to hundreds. I can't think of the formal name of the program, but lots of people have taken advantage of the service.

It looks like this is the program (which only has an operation name specific to this one event): https://www.wmky.org/post/medical-service-mission-provide-free-healthcare-eastern-kentucky

I've never heard of the Washington National Guard deployed to do this, even in our poorer areas, outside of disaster recovery.

[Dirt Roads]

Even if ECU doesn't have a dental school (and I'd be surprised if it did), UNC or NC State probably has one. Kentucky, a smaller state, has two (UK and U of L). Let them evaluate you and even if you have to pay for travel and lodging, it might be cheaper than having it done professionally at a local clinic.

UNC Dental School has a traveling clinic program that bounces around North Carolina.  It was here in Orange County a few years ago (our church provided some of the volunteer staffing), and they don't anticipate getting back here for a while (perhaps every 5 years).  As Tolbs already mentioned, ECU is the other public dental school in North Carolina.  Many (if not all) of the other UNC campuses have dental schools (pre-dental) that feed into UNC and ECU. 

For those not familiar with North Carolina's university system, UNC and North Carolina State do not compete with each other academically.  From the 10,000-foot level, these institutions function similar to a single university on two separate campuses, except that they have separate administrations.  There is one overlapping program: computer science.  Both are taught with similar curriculum, except that NC State's computer science program is ABET accredited (those are the folks that focus on science, technology and engineering college accreditation). 

[abefroman329]

All I know from personal experience is that, when ACA first launched, it looked like a good deal to my wife and me and we signed up on the exchange.  Then, the next year, premiums across the board started going up.  And the small business I work for was required to offer health insurance, which then meant my wife and me were no longer eligible for the ACA exchange plan.  In order for us to afford my company's health insurance, we'd have to pay an arm and two legs every month, and we'd still get crappy coverage with high deductibles unless we wanted to pay another arm every month.

We've been on marketplace insurance twice in the past few years, as I've lost employer-sponsored health insurance (as well as employment) twice since then.

The first time was really a learning experience for the second time.  I valued being able to see my primary care doctor, who's a curmudgeon about which plans he accepts (all plans, not just marketplace plans), and paid way too much for that privilege.  The plan also didn't cover one of my psych meds, and it cost me about $80 a month to get it filled at Costco.  I broke my arm while covered by this plan, and was able to get the same level of care I would have gotten with an employer-sponsored plan.  I probably paid about the same amount of money in copays and such.

The second time, I made sure to choose a plan that covered all of the meds my wife and I take, and that allowed our son to keep seeing his usual pediatrician [although he ended up qualifying for S-CHIP, so that was a moot point in the end].  It cost about the same as an employer-sponsored plan, and believe it or not, I pay more for prescriptions on my current, employer-sponsored plan than I did on the marketplace plan.

Then again, being on the church personnel committee, I've seen how much our pastor has to pay for his family's health insurance, and it comes to roughly half my family's income.  It's insane how expensive health insurance costs.

My late father-in-law effectively went from working as a preacher to being part-owner of a company that manufactured bleachers, and never had health insurance at all until he qualified for Medicare.  He was no liberal, but after he started obtaining medical care through Medicare, he declared "I am a socialist now."

[hbelkins]

Even if ECU doesn't have a dental school (and I'd be surprised if it did), UNC or NC State probably has one. Kentucky, a smaller state, has two (UK and U of L). Let them evaluate you and even if you have to pay for travel and lodging, it might be cheaper than having it done professionally at a local clinic.

UNC Dental School has a traveling clinic program that bounces around North Carolina.  It was here in Orange County a few years ago (our church provided some of the volunteer staffing), and they don't anticipate getting back here for a while (perhaps every 5 years).  As Tolbs already mentioned, ECU is the other public dental school in North Carolina.  Many (if not all) of the other UNC campuses have dental schools (pre-dental) that feed into UNC and ECU. 

For those not familiar with North Carolina's university system, UNC and North Carolina State do not compete with each other academically.  From the 10,000-foot level, these institutions function similar to a single university on two separate campuses, except that they have separate administrations.  There is one overlapping program: computer science.  Both are taught with similar curriculum, except that NC State's computer science program is ABET accredited (those are the folks that focus on science, technology and engineering college accreditation).

For years, Kentucky basketball fans have derisively referred to the team that wears pale blue  as "UNC-CH," putting it on the same level as UNC-Asheville and UNC-Wilimington. The team's mascot is the Tar Holes.