Medicaid and Dental Care

Medicaid coverage is no guarantee of care, By Sarah Okeson, April 21, 2012, Springfield News-Leader: “Adults on Medicaid in Missouri have to be blind, pregnant or in a nursing home to qualify for dental care. It’s better for children. The federal government requires dental coverage for children on Medicaid in Missouri and other states. But that insurance doesn’t mean they actually get the services. Slightly more than 30 percent of children ages 1 to 18 enrolled in Medicaid in Missouri received dental services in 2009, the fourth worst rate among the 50 states, according to the Pew Center on the States in Washington, D.C. Only Florida, Montana and Wisconsin had dentists who treated a smaller share of their states’ poor children…”