Luckily they didn't need $$$.  And she had a fabulous insurance.  

Dental insurance used to be good, when it was even offered.

Ive never seen a dental insurance policy from my DHs company that was worth  the time it took to read it.  

Wow. So it was at an Army facility. I wonder how much of that was under gub'mint contract.

Jeri (azpaints) said:

I thought there was some movement to stop that practice.

Probably the hapless people caught in that don't have the deep pockets to purchase Senators and Congressmen to vote for fair legislation in that area. While Big Pharma and Big Medicine can throw tens of billions of dollars to purchase the legislation they like.

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." - Frédéric_Bastiat

He went on to later say,

"When under the pretext of fraternity, the legal code imposes mutual sacrifices on the citizens, human nature is not thereby abrogated. Everyone will then direct his efforts toward contributing little to, and taking much from, the common fund of sacrifices. Now, is it the most unfortunate who gains from this struggle? Certainly not, but rather the most influential and calculating."

...

When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.

...

It is a rather singular argument to maintain that, because an abuse which has been permitted a temporary existence, cannot be corrected without wounding the interests of those who have profited by it, it ought, therefore, to claim perpetual duration.

...

It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.

...

Showtalk said:

That’s the time to hire an attorney and take it public.

Problem is, most people in that trap don't have any money.

Jeri (azpaints) said:

From my personal experience Dental insurance is a complete joke.

Exactly.

A passport is a valuable way to deal with dental needs, just across the border, where cash and carry costs are far less than the copays on even a gold plated plan and a US clinic.

Before Covid messed up the border crossings, I got a root canal and 2 crowns for about $700. And the crowns done in Mexico held up far better than those done in the US.

IIRC the facility had been Shut down for years.  The leak originated from a Shell Oil storage tank and had nothing to do with the government other than some of the damaged land was government owned

No, probably not.

Jeri (azpaints) said:

The leak originated from a Shell Oil storage tank and had nothing to do with the government other than some of the damaged land was government owned

so it was similar to the Exxon Valdez