My Teeth, My Sewer, HVCA, My Pocketbook

Tying it All Together - Part 6

SYNOPSIS: Parts 1 – 5 slogged through some US history commencing in 1846 and established that in the American psyche there exists a tacit pride for any act committed in the name of the flag, leaving off with NASA’s irrepressible and unabashed revelry for their marksmanship in blasting a hole in an innocent bypassing comet that didn’t belong to them because there was neither law nor moral restraint to prevent them. Part 6 – comments on some noteworthy current events. (Reading time: about a minute, probably less.)


PART 6

“Zeit, Wind, Frau und Glueck
Veraendern sich im Augenblick

(“Time, the wind, women and fortune
Can change in an instant.“)

That proverb was etched on an old beer stein I bought in Munich a long time ago when I was in the army over there. I eventually gave my son the beer stein but the etched proverb remained, etched also onto my mind: (“Time, the wind, women and fortune Can change in an instant. “)

And lemme tell you, things just changed for me, BIG TIME! (Because I didn’t die soon enough.)

Under a program sponsored by the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin (SASM) which qualified me for financial assistance because I am well below the median income for Marin County, I had my sewer lateral replaced in January 2011. The old one wore out before I died.

Day before yesterday my dentist told me one of the two molars supporting a bridge which has two artificial teeth in between was about to go south (because I haven’t died yet) and, owing to the location and peculiarities of this case the only option for repair is a complete new bridge. And I believe him. Then he told me the price. I believed that too. And that is something to talk about.

There was a time when I was a good fit in Marin County. While employed by the State of California in a civil service classification of Journeyman (I was never Management material) I bought and paid for the modest house where my wife and I still live and where our son lived while he walked every step – for twelve years – to his schooling in the Mill Valley School District. Now, I couldn’t afford my front door knocker because prices are headed for the moon and because everybody and his brother have their fingers in my pockets. And for years Social Security says nothing has changed. To which I say – Humbug.

Herewith, my reasoning: My present Dental Plan is the same and only one my wife and I have ever had, and I don’t know how long that has been but my records go back to December 1991 when, as a point of reference the charge and the benefit for “Adult Cleaning” was $46.00. In December 2010 the charge for the same service, now called “Adult Prophylaxis” was $113.00, PLUS $48.00 for ”Periodic oral evaluation” (which the dentist used to do as part of his service for no extra charge.) That’s a jump from $46.00 to $161.00 for the same identical procedure, or roughly 350%, an acceleration rate of about 18% a year, inexorably and forever.

If anyone wants to argue about that, be prepared for a cascade of numbers to be thrown at you with all the enthusiasm of NASA in their favorite pastime of blasting comets.

Now – to put the current replacement cost of my dental bridge in perspective: it (the cost quoted to me) is equivalent to four times the cost of the first NEW automobile I ever purchased, in 1960. Four teeth in 2011 are worth the same as four new automobiles in 1960. (Yes, yes, I know all about apples and oranges.)

And dyspepsia, too.

For which I should offer HVCA my most groveling and humble thanks for the object lesson of passing Measure A before the axe fell. They – not I – are insured a rising income – out of my pockets – clean through eternity, no matter what.

To be continued.