I remember my aunt’s stories about Soviet dental care in the late 1970’s. She lived in socialist Czechoslovakia, which was no picnic, but which had a much higher standard of care than the USSR. She and my uncle were on a bus tour of the USSR when she developed a severe toothache and had to see a dentist. She was appalled at the conditions. They had no anesthesia, and the dental office had only one very dull drill bit. Apparently none of the other dentists in town had any functioning dental drills at all. She underwent a root canal under very painful conditions, and was grateful not to have any further problems before reaching home. Her descriptions of the filthy facilities, ancient equipment and non-sterile drilling process gave me the creeps.
...coming soon to a government healthcare / insurance company near you.