Medicaid and Dental Care – Illinois

State can’t afford to improve dental service for poor, official says, By Dean Olson, February 14, 2010, State Journal-Register: “The difficulties low-income Illinoisans encounter in obtaining dental care are no secret, a state official says. But amid a recession and a multibillion-dollar state budget deficit, the tens of millions of dollars that would be needed to make a dent in the problem aren’t available, Illinois Medicaid director Theresa Eagleson said. ‘I don’t think the dental-access issue is an Illinois problem alone,’ she said. ‘And it’s not that people don’t want to fix this problem, or other access issues in pockets of the state. It’s a balancing act all the time between less money available and people in need and priorities.’ Decades of low and slow payments through Medicaid – which pays health-care bills for certain low- and moderate-income people – have driven away most Illinois dentists. At most, fewer than one out of every three Illinois dentists is signed up to bill the program. And statistics indicate that as few as 10 percent of Illinois dentists are regularly billing Medicaid for service…”