In the United States it is already illegal for a hospital to deny someone medical care. Whether they can pay or not they have to be given care. The problem here is the same isn't true of medication and dental work.
An insanely stupid flaw but an insanely easy one to fix.
By fixing that one flaw everyone in this article would have lived. The problem is the American public is fixated on Universal Health Care. Democrats want it, Republicans want to block it and no one is looking at other solutions to the problem.
That's really a problem because the debates take time. It is very likely ObamaCare is going to be defunded (the odds of the Republicans taking the Senate in 2012 are very good statistically). Once that happens we're going to be right back where we started AGAIN.
But there are plenty of solutions that would (or at least should) appease both sides that could be implemented almost instantly.
My personal opinion has always been that Health Care should be dealt with through low to no interest borrowing. The government was willing to subsidize 30 year loans to people with no credit if it meant buying a house so why shouldn't the same be true for medical care. That way this 24 year old can get anything he needs for under $10 a month (and we can offer deferred payment to those in bad circumstances like unemployment).
That solution could literally be implemented tomorrow. Just tell banks "the government will back these loans in the same way we used to back Student Loans when they were done through private banks". Then BOOM! Problem solved in the interim and and we can continue to debate Universal Health Care for years safely knowing no one will die while the debate was going on.
(My brother and I have been self-employed for years, and we both just self-insure for dental and visit the dentist for regular checkups. If you have good teeth, it seems to be cheaper than buying dental insurance even if you have to pay for a $1200 procedure once a decade. But, see, we are willing and able to pay that when it happens; a guy who can't afford a $100 extraction cannot, let alone regular exams!)
What I really don't understand is why the body doesn't auto-extract these teeth. I mean, it seems like it would be in the genetic interest for that to happen.
Things like this would be better served by microloans anyway. Patient financing should be looked to as a way of controlling costs rather than forcing everyone to buy health insurance. If the boy's parents had been given the option of paying, say $10 a month over a year for the dental procedure, it would've been much easier on them than paying $80 up front. They could pay less if they make all their payments early.
Just give them an option, an option they can understand and afford.
I think it's partly rooted in the mental models we have about medical stuff and their costs. I can't tell you how often I hear someone tell me that eating better is "too expensive" an option for improving their health. In many cases, it's a matter of a few bucks a month a month compared to sometimes literally thousands of dollars a month in medical expenses. But food comes out of their pocket and a big medical crisis they think someone else will help cover. I think.
I don't get it myself. Just tossing that out there.
