There, fixed it for you.
My insurance pays 85% for crowns, etc. MY cost for a single gold crown was $381.40. You're trying to tell me that the hour the dentist worked on my tooth was worth $2000 minus the $94.13 I paid for the gold? Yeah, right.
That's anti-capitalist hogwash. Any time a price is higher than someone thinks it should be (based on nothing, really), then it's called "gouging".
Are you "gouging" your employer when you get a raise? After all, you're costing your employer more than he'd like to pay you.
If a dentist's prices are higher than they "should be", then another dentist could undercut him and get more patients. Or, you could pay to go to dental school for a few years and become one yourself, getting in on all the free money pouring in.
Maybe you need to shop. My dentist did porcelain crowns for me for $450.00 each, and took about an hour each time. Add in professional insurance, rent and salaries.
Do you buy a loaf of bread for the cost of the wheat?
In addition, you’re subsidizing the existing Medicaid patients.
Find a new dentist; the world is full of people more than willing to work cheap.
Where are you living?
In my city, dentists are charging about $600 to $700 for a full crown, and some are dentists who are Fellows and Masters of the Academy of General Dentistry ( a very high honor).
I have an idea. Come to my state. Have your crown done by a dentist who is a Fellow or Master of the Academy of General Dentistry, and use the rest to stay at a really nice hotel for a few days.