By Steve Pollock, President and Chief Executive Officer
In 1965, Medicaid and Medicare were signed into law. At that
time, there were more than 194 million people in the United States. Thirty-two
million lived in poverty. America’s low-income population was in desperate need
of medical coverage and the financial means to access care.
Enacting Medicaid and Medicare was the first step toward
helping this largely underserved population. With the intended purpose of
providing a public health insurance program for low-income people, Medicaid has
made great strides in increasing access to coverage since its inception.
Medicaid Covers More
People, Just Not for Dental
From the original 4 million Americans that enrolled in
Medicaid to the 65 million who are enrolled today, the goal has remained the same:
administer proper medical care to those with limited or scarce resources.
Policy and lawmakers alike have recognized the importance of
creating an opportunity for all Americans, socioeconomic status aside, to be
protected with quality medical care.
As
background, Medicaid provides health coverage to non-elderly low-income
parents, their children, other caretaker relatives, pregnant women, and other
non-disabled adults. Most recently, Medicaid expanded
to include more people under those definitions based on language in the Affordable Care Act.
While Medicaid’s accomplishments to date are something to be
deeply proud of, the reality is that there is a major gap that still needs attending to: adult dental coverage.
Medicaid Members Need
Dental Coverage
A few months ago, I wrote a blog
post on Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding being successfully extended for two more
years. In that post, I pointed out the decision to include adult dental care
coverage within Medicaid is up to each state to decide. As a result of that
policy, millions of Americans are left
without access to dental benefits. This still holds true, even though oral
health is vital to overall health and lower health costs.
In the past decade alone, patients seeking treatment for
dental pain in the ER doubled from 1.1 million to 2.1 million. And 80 percent of dental-related ER visits are caused
by preventable conditions. This reality means our focus needs to be on providing preventive care that will ultimately
cost three times less than ER visits, and save a lot of people from
excruciating dental pain.
CHIP is a great example of how mandated dental coverage
works. CHIP has been a critical source of health coverage for children and
pregnant women who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to
purchase private health insurance. It provides affordable medical and dental
coverage to more than 8 million children across the country.
Coverage Leads to Improved
Prevention
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, 80 percent of CHIP enrollees saw a dentist in the past year, a
number much higher in comparison to children who do not have coverage. That
preventive care will ultimately save kids from future dental emergency visits, keep
kids in school instead of at excessive dental appointments, and ensure more
kids are pain-free and smiling.
Moving forward, I urge legislators to rise to the challenge:
let’s continue increasing access for
those in need and secure adult dental coverage under Medicaid at the federal
level.
Oral health is crucial to overall health and wellness, and
should be recognized as so by the law. Mandating adult dental coverage is the
necessary next step towards achieving improved oral health for all.