in Japan where the government sets the prices, dentists do things over 3 visits that dentists in other places would do in 1 because then they can bill the government set price 3 times instead of one
There are certainly problems in the healthcare systems in other countries. I don’t think there’s any perfect system. But if you ask me, “you have to go to the dentist 3 times” is a much better problem than “even people with health insurance go bankrupt regularly as a result of getting ill and needing medical care”.
The US government spends a similar amount of money per person on healthcare as other western countries do. But unlike Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan and so on, people don’t even get free healthcare in exchange for all that tax money. The system is deeply flawed. I don’t know anything about the Japanese healthcare system, but I’d still choose to be sick in Japan than America any day of the week.
I'm sure you could offer the Japanese dentist 10% of what the procedure would cost in the US and they would do it in one trip.
It cost about 25% of US prices to fly to Costa Rica, stay at a resort, and get the procedure done in a top notch facility. And that's if you just need 1 root canal and crown. If you need even more done the savings move closer to 90%.
And that is a really nice places. You could drive to Mexico and get it done at a decent place for comparatively nothing.
My dental work in Cancun was under $30K including flights from Seattle and 10 days at a higher end hotel (Westin), for work I was quoted up to $65K for in the US.
The US government spends a similar amount of money per person on healthcare as other western countries do. But unlike Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan and so on, people don’t even get free healthcare in exchange for all that tax money. The system is deeply flawed. I don’t know anything about the Japanese healthcare system, but I’d still choose to be sick in Japan than America any day of the week.