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Comment by azinman2 | Hacker News Reader

The biggest problem is the cost of education. People have loans to repay, and then don’t take time to apprentice like they used to. In dentistry this leads to a lot of unnecessary work. In medicine this leads to very short appointments, and fewer doctors.

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We should not blame “cost of education” to justify fraud especially for healthcare related things. There’s a line, don’t cross it

Though I believe the cost of education isn't the only explanation I also think it's unwise to ignore systemic problems, blaming and prosecuting individuals won't make them disappear.

This is literally from talking to (good) dentists about the state of the industry and intrinsic motivations. I’m hardly justifying fraud - but that doesn’t tell you the “why” when it’s widespread.

One explanation I've read is that fluoridation of drinking water plus improved dental hygiene in general has decreased the average number of cavities in the population, driving dentists to pursue other income sources, such as cosmetic procedures (my last dentists was always trying to push Invisilign on me).

New dentist keeps trying to push Invisalign on my family, thinking about switching for that reason alone. Haven't needed braces my whole life and suddenly I'm getting a sales pitch about all the terrible things Invisalign could prevent.

My education was expensive and our industry hasn’t turned into that.

Did you have to pay for grad school on top of undergrad?

Newsflash: getting an expensive grad degree was your choice and doesn’t justify committing healthcare fraud

Again, never said it was justified.

How does this argument square with them driving a $150k BMW?

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