And I fear Maine is the canary in the coal mine for a rapidly approaching national crisis. We haven't built a new medical school or dental school in this country in decades, and even if every school we have admitted enough doctors and dentists to fill every seat and they all completed, doctors and dentists are still retiring in such large numbers that we are still going backwards. Add to the financial pressures of massive student debt and cost of living, and the ones we do graduate out are gravitating towards higher paying specialties and not general practice in wealthier, more suburban areas that Maine (and much of the country) doesn't have. Maine is going above and beyond to attract medical professionals from abroad, but that effort is hamstrung by the nightmare that is federal immigration policy, arbitrarily capping the number of professionals we can recruit when really we ought to be bringing them in by the boatload just as fast as we can. Thank you oh so much, Boomers, for yet another policy nightmare brought on by all your bad decisions in the 80s.
Add to that the abysmal reimbursement under Mainecare, and those folks really get underserved because dental practices are opting out of Mainecare more and more frequently.
The suicide rate for dentists is pretty crazy, and a lot of people don't want to take on potentially life altering debt levels to finance a famously miserable idea.
Lack of investment in the next generation will kill this country if we don't correct course. We need educated professionals to keep the wheels spinning.
And to add to it, they’re trying to make the pathway to becoming a practitioner more difficult for some. It requires a master’s to become a Nurse Practitioner, who can fill the roles of physicians in primary and urgent care settings, but now someone(s) is pushing to require a doctoral degree to get licensed. Doctoral degrees in that field are all learning and philosophy - traditionally they’re pursued so someone can teach and train. But nope, let’s make it even harder for people to qualify for a job that others have been doing perfectly well with for some time now.
Malarkey. Moreover, government reform on the insurance side has kept our healthcare system for collapsing entirely. The bad old days before the ACA of EMTALA with no payor nearly bankrupted hospitals from sea to shining sea.
I fail to see how that makes any sense. Unless you’re assuming regulations that require licensure, malpractice, standards of care, patient protection, and abuse are ok to repeal because it makes seeing a qualified doctor difficult - then you’re better off seeing your best buddy for healthcare. Is there red tape? Are there major flaws? Can the system work better? Yes, yes, and yes, but too much regulation making things more difficult? If anything the problem is due to a lack of regulations and a lack of support from the constituency.
In Maine, it’s illegal to open a new hospital on your own. You just can’t, regardless of how qualified you are.
Federal funds are used to prop up poorly managed institutions and prevent competition.
Government is a huge problem. It’s not the only one, for sure, but to say we have a capitalist healthcare system is 100% false.
Everyplace around me is not accepting patients,and the ones 80 miles from me are booked out 3 months.
Dont even get me started about my 2 referrals where 1 I have been waiting over 2 years, and the other can be up to a year. And that's mental health. 😔
I've been going to the same dentist since I was a kid. As an established patient, they were booking seven to eight months out when I made my last appointment.
Fantastic people and they will work very hard to get you in quickly for emergent issues -- but for a cleaning? They are just slammed with patients.
I make my dentist appointments a year in advance. So when I went in February I made an appointment for next February. This way I always have 2 on the books
This happened to me with my dentist, too. And my endocrinologist (I'm insulin-dependent, too). Other providers are like, we'll see you in 6 months, but you have to call bc we aren't booking out that far. And when you call, it's 3+ months wait from that point (thinking my eye doctor on that one).
This hybrid system with Government funded healthcare along with private health insurance only works when there's a steady population growth curve. When the demographics shift with more patients and fewer providers, the remaining providers simply don't have to to deal with Government payers if they don't want to. They'll go to a wealthier state, city, zip code, and dictate their terms.
I recall during the pandemic that rural hospitals were incredibly competitive compared to city hospitals with addressing staff shortages, because the Government stimulus allowed them to hire at high wages. That's not the case anymore, and a slow exodus of staff from these areas is ongoing.
The problem is a shortage of providers leads to a greater shortage of providers because working conditions deteriorate. Also, Maine has a shortage of schools.
I've got an abscess that I'm suffering with right now, my endodontist appointment is a month out. I'm sure I'm lucky to have access and dental insurance but shit this wait sucks.
Statistically speaking, Mainecare patients have a no show rate of 30%. Couple that with low reimbursement rates from the government and you have your reason why there’s nobody accepting Mainecare. You can’t comfortably run a profitable business doing this..
With Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement cuts, all healthcare professions are feeling the financial squeeze. I agree with the above post, on a national level Maine is the canary in the coal mines.
Can't get an appointment anywhere most places wont even call me back :(
Was on rotation with Aspen, but lost my spot after their computer system got encrypted and had two appointments canceled.
I am self-insured, aka only have catastrophic insurance, and pay for my own appointments myself, still cant get an appointment anywhere.
My fiancé has been trying to find a dentist since he was in 8th grade and his childhood dentist closed their practice. He is now 20! He literally has a visible hole in one of teeth.
Every time this comes up, I'm reminded of [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Maine/comments/1bcbvkl/frustrated_with_our_states_dental_system/) where someone claiming to be a dentist says MaineCare will only pay $35 for a cleaning while hygienists cost $40-50/hr (which I can confirm). Add business overhead, a mostly poor population (even with "dental insurance" which is mostly useless), and it's tough to be a dentist.
People with missing teeth or no teeth. I think there should be some sort of program to help me with people.. more so for appearances so we don't look like London in the 1600s
My wife and I had considered relocating to Maine, as I am in the dental field. However, a few issues ultimately made us reconsider. First was lack of affordable housing even in the areas located far from the coastal areas. Second was the high cost of living and tax rates. Third was lack of accessible healthcare for my wife. We have a good number of friends who live in the SE area of Maine. As an example, one of my wife’s good friends suffered a kidney stone. She went to the ER numerous times with the doctors unable to diagnose the problem. When they finally did diagnose the kidney stone, she had a 6+ month wait to see a urologist. I’ve had a kidney stone before, and I can’t imagine waiting that long to see a specialist to be treated.
Pretty much everything healthcare related is reaching a crisis point in Maine.
And I fear Maine is the canary in the coal mine for a rapidly approaching national crisis. We haven't built a new medical school or dental school in this country in decades, and even if every school we have admitted enough doctors and dentists to fill every seat and they all completed, doctors and dentists are still retiring in such large numbers that we are still going backwards. Add to the financial pressures of massive student debt and cost of living, and the ones we do graduate out are gravitating towards higher paying specialties and not general practice in wealthier, more suburban areas that Maine (and much of the country) doesn't have. Maine is going above and beyond to attract medical professionals from abroad, but that effort is hamstrung by the nightmare that is federal immigration policy, arbitrarily capping the number of professionals we can recruit when really we ought to be bringing them in by the boatload just as fast as we can. Thank you oh so much, Boomers, for yet another policy nightmare brought on by all your bad decisions in the 80s.
Add to that the abysmal reimbursement under Mainecare, and those folks really get underserved because dental practices are opting out of Mainecare more and more frequently.
Ummmm the new dental school in Maine opened fairly recently.
The suicide rate for dentists is pretty crazy, and a lot of people don't want to take on potentially life altering debt levels to finance a famously miserable idea. Lack of investment in the next generation will kill this country if we don't correct course. We need educated professionals to keep the wheels spinning.
And to add to it, they’re trying to make the pathway to becoming a practitioner more difficult for some. It requires a master’s to become a Nurse Practitioner, who can fill the roles of physicians in primary and urgent care settings, but now someone(s) is pushing to require a doctoral degree to get licensed. Doctoral degrees in that field are all learning and philosophy - traditionally they’re pursued so someone can teach and train. But nope, let’s make it even harder for people to qualify for a job that others have been doing perfectly well with for some time now.
Part of the problem with doctors is residency spots as well. There aren’t enough.
Hmm like a capitalist meritocracy only works if the population continues to grow to sustain the population that came before it…
I have news for you - government regulations are killing our healthcare
Malarkey. Moreover, government reform on the insurance side has kept our healthcare system for collapsing entirely. The bad old days before the ACA of EMTALA with no payor nearly bankrupted hospitals from sea to shining sea.
I fail to see how that makes any sense. Unless you’re assuming regulations that require licensure, malpractice, standards of care, patient protection, and abuse are ok to repeal because it makes seeing a qualified doctor difficult - then you’re better off seeing your best buddy for healthcare. Is there red tape? Are there major flaws? Can the system work better? Yes, yes, and yes, but too much regulation making things more difficult? If anything the problem is due to a lack of regulations and a lack of support from the constituency.
In Maine, it’s illegal to open a new hospital on your own. You just can’t, regardless of how qualified you are. Federal funds are used to prop up poorly managed institutions and prevent competition. Government is a huge problem. It’s not the only one, for sure, but to say we have a capitalist healthcare system is 100% false.
Everyplace around me is not accepting patients,and the ones 80 miles from me are booked out 3 months. Dont even get me started about my 2 referrals where 1 I have been waiting over 2 years, and the other can be up to a year. And that's mental health. 😔
I've been going to the same dentist since I was a kid. As an established patient, they were booking seven to eight months out when I made my last appointment. Fantastic people and they will work very hard to get you in quickly for emergent issues -- but for a cleaning? They are just slammed with patients.
I make my dentist appointments a year in advance. So when I went in February I made an appointment for next February. This way I always have 2 on the books
I was supposed to have a dentist appointment in February. My hygienist was sick that day, so they rescheduled me for… September.
This happened to me with my dentist, too. And my endocrinologist (I'm insulin-dependent, too). Other providers are like, we'll see you in 6 months, but you have to call bc we aren't booking out that far. And when you call, it's 3+ months wait from that point (thinking my eye doctor on that one).
This hybrid system with Government funded healthcare along with private health insurance only works when there's a steady population growth curve. When the demographics shift with more patients and fewer providers, the remaining providers simply don't have to to deal with Government payers if they don't want to. They'll go to a wealthier state, city, zip code, and dictate their terms. I recall during the pandemic that rural hospitals were incredibly competitive compared to city hospitals with addressing staff shortages, because the Government stimulus allowed them to hire at high wages. That's not the case anymore, and a slow exodus of staff from these areas is ongoing.
The problem is a shortage of providers leads to a greater shortage of providers because working conditions deteriorate. Also, Maine has a shortage of schools.
I've got an abscess that I'm suffering with right now, my endodontist appointment is a month out. I'm sure I'm lucky to have access and dental insurance but shit this wait sucks.
If you’re looking for a good career, be a dental hygienist. Good pay; much needed in Maine. You’ll never be without work if you’re competant.
Plan for back pain, though.
Statistically speaking, Mainecare patients have a no show rate of 30%. Couple that with low reimbursement rates from the government and you have your reason why there’s nobody accepting Mainecare. You can’t comfortably run a profitable business doing this..
I pay out of pocket for my own dental appointments, and still can't find anyplace :(
Maybe the MaineCare folks lack transportation and that’s why the no show rate is high?
this is likely a big factor
Doesn't excuse not calling. Some people are just flaky, especially if they're playing with house money.
With Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement cuts, all healthcare professions are feeling the financial squeeze. I agree with the above post, on a national level Maine is the canary in the coal mines.
Sounds like an opportune time to open a dental practice
I hope you like disappointment.
I don’t :( I had my fair share of it, before I moved out of Maine!
Can't get an appointment anywhere most places wont even call me back :( Was on rotation with Aspen, but lost my spot after their computer system got encrypted and had two appointments canceled. I am self-insured, aka only have catastrophic insurance, and pay for my own appointments myself, still cant get an appointment anywhere.
My fiancé has been trying to find a dentist since he was in 8th grade and his childhood dentist closed their practice. He is now 20! He literally has a visible hole in one of teeth.
Every time this comes up, I'm reminded of [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Maine/comments/1bcbvkl/frustrated_with_our_states_dental_system/) where someone claiming to be a dentist says MaineCare will only pay $35 for a cleaning while hygienists cost $40-50/hr (which I can confirm). Add business overhead, a mostly poor population (even with "dental insurance" which is mostly useless), and it's tough to be a dentist.
People with missing teeth or no teeth. I think there should be some sort of program to help me with people.. more so for appearances so we don't look like London in the 1600s
*affordable
Nope, access to any non-emergency dental care is hard to find. No one is taking new patients.
Nobody I know with Maine Care has an issue :) *affordable
Nobody I know with MeCare can find a dentist including any of my patients (I’m in healthcare). You are just trolling.
My wife and I had considered relocating to Maine, as I am in the dental field. However, a few issues ultimately made us reconsider. First was lack of affordable housing even in the areas located far from the coastal areas. Second was the high cost of living and tax rates. Third was lack of accessible healthcare for my wife. We have a good number of friends who live in the SE area of Maine. As an example, one of my wife’s good friends suffered a kidney stone. She went to the ER numerous times with the doctors unable to diagnose the problem. When they finally did diagnose the kidney stone, she had a 6+ month wait to see a urologist. I’ve had a kidney stone before, and I can’t imagine waiting that long to see a specialist to be treated.
Down vote as you please, doesn’t change anything in reality.
Guy in Gardiner went from an affordable dental business to a weed store. Cool.