Will privatizing Medicaid’s dental program hurt Utah kids?, By Jennifer Dobner, July 10, 2013, Salt Lake Tribune: “Laura Privett is worried about the future of her children’s very expensive mouths. Her eldest, 16-year-old Wade, got his first filling before he turned 4. Her youngest, 6-year-old Kayden, was born with a partial cleft lip and had his first dental x-rays at five days old. He’s already had cranial facial surgery, six fillings and six caps. His jaw is so overcrowded with aching teeth that sometimes he can’t eat. ‘If it wasn’t for Medicaid, my kids would not have access to those dental services,’ the Kearns mother said. The care the Privetts rely on may change under a state plan to hire private managed care organizations to run the Medicaid dental program. Utah pediatric dentists fear the move will mean less access to care for children and smaller payments for dentists…”
Tag: Dental care
Medicaid and Children’s Dental Care
- State 2nd worst in poor kids’ dental care, By Karen Herzog, June 25, 2013, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Only one state in the nation has a worse track record than Wisconsin for providing dental care for low-income children, a report released Tuesday by Pew Charitable Trusts says. In Wisconsin, 71.5% of Medicaid-enrolled kids did not see a dentist in 2011 — second only to Florida, where three-fourths of Medicaid-enrolled kids didn’t get dental care that year…”
- Dentists for children in short supply in Valley, By Barbara Anderson, June 25, 2013, Fresno Bee: “More than half the state’s low-income children are going without dental care because there aren’t enough dentists willing to treat the young who are on government insurance, a new report released today says. In 2011, 58.6% of the children enrolled in Medi-Cal did not receive any dental service, according to ‘In Search of Dental Care,’ a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Nationwide, the report found more than 14 million children enrolled in Medicaid did not receive any dental service…”
- Oregon faces critical dentist shortage, report shows, By Soumya Karlamangla, June 24, 2013, The Oregonian: “Oregon suffers from one of the most severe dentist shortages in the country, according to data released today. A Pew Charitable Trusts report to be released Tuesday reveals that approximately 17 percent of Oregonians live in a dentist shortage area and therefore likely won’t receive adequate dental care. Oregon ranks 10th worst in the nation for dentist shortages…”
- Florida at bottom in providing dental care for poor children, Pew report finds, By Kate Santich, June 24, 2013, Orlando Sentinel: “More than three-fourths of Florida’s children covered by Medicaid do not get regular dental care — the worst rate of any state, according to a report released today by the Pew Children’s Dental Campaign. The lack of care affected 1.5 million children across the state in 2011, the period analyzed by the Pew researchers. Nationally, they said, tens of millions of low-income children went without dental care that year…”
Medicaid and Dental Coverage
Sharp cuts in dental coverage for adults on Medicaid, By Abby Goodnough, August 28, 2012, New York Times: “Banned from tightening Medicaid eligibility in recent years, many states have instead slashed optional benefits for millions of poor adults in the program. Teeth have suffered disproportionately. Republican- and Democratic-controlled states alike have reduced or largely eliminated dental coverage for adults on Medicaid, the shared state and federal health insurance program for poor people. The situation is not likely to improve under President Obama’s health care overhaul: it requires dental coverage for children only…”