Originally published at: The Cost of the GOP’s Medicaid Cuts: ER Bills for States and a Spiraling Oral Health Crisis - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Dentist Dr. Tara Prasad thinks a lot about the logistics of homelessness — how difficult it is to brush your teeth when you don’t have a place to store a toothbrush, or how to protect a life-changing set of dentures when you’re sleeping and someone may steal your belongings. Prasad is the dental director at Boston…
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A society that fails to take care of the basic health needs of its own is a failed society. If you have ever had dental problems you realize just how artificial the distinction is between dental and other health conditions. People can die of poor dental health.
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" The Preamble states that an overriding purpose of the U.S. Constitution is to “promote the general welfare,” indicating that issues such as poverty, housing, food and other economic and social welfare issues facing the citizenry were of central concern to the framers."
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And yet there is ZERO dental coverage under Medicare. My medigap policy had it, but switched it out for partnering with a company for partial hearing aid coverage
Dental coverage is one of the first things to be dropped or reduced under employee health coverage as well. And now that fluoride has been attacked by the MAHA group, paretns are going to be in for a big shock when they take the kids in for the (most likely) still covered dental check up and little Johnny now has 7 cavities and your lucky if it’s covered at 50%.
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Gosh. Who woulda thought this could happen?
How many times do we have to go through this before everybody admits that to have a truly functioning country we need a stable system for providing taxpayer-funded basic healthcare for everybody? And that “taxpayers” needs to include rich people who pay an equitable share?
Just given the number of times we’ve gone through this stupid cycle in my lifetime, with “conservatives” constantly insisting that we can’t have such things, I can only assume that the answer to "how many times do we have to do it before we come to our senses as a nation? is on the order of umpty-ump billion times.
“Conservatives” don’t give a crap about anybody’s health but their own and the hill they will always choose as the one they might die on is “should rich people have to pay an equitable share of taxes? HELL no!” And conservatives ye shall always have with you. But I don’t know why.
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I’m on a Medicare “managed” plan, and while the fact that I only have to pay one bill is nice, the dental coverage is meager. $1000/year will sometimes cover one procedure; in the last few years I’ve paid tens of thousands for my mouth. (My own fault for not taking better care of oral care in the past.) Luckily, I’ve been able to pay for my treatments. Imagine the struggles of the poor and homeless. It’s insane that we limit spending on matters crucial to health care, but waste billions bombing Iran. There is something very wrong with our country.
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This is the flip side of the ditzy MAHA, the real, actionable work of MAGA is to break things and make folks sicker while running teevee shows as distraction. Maybe RFK Jr. can do a 7 month road trip too complete with whale juice and raccoon nads so the faithful have something to cheer for while their teeth fall out. Extractions and circuses . . . .
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And, no one with bad teeth will get a good job.
One aspect of reforming our system is to provide free college & dental school. A new dentist with several hundred thousand in student loans can’t work for Medicaid rates.
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Dental care is health care. It’s that simple: and twice-annual cleanings and checks (as covered by most dental policies) aren’t adequate for everyone. Diabetics, for example, are more likely to have periodontal disease, which can mess with glycemic control. Keep the gum inflammation down and A1c levels get better. Diabetics ought get three or four cleanings a year, and their dentist should be deciding the number rather than their insurance company.
A dental abscess is minor medical emergency–a shit-ton of cranial nerve VII branches run through the mouth and they are a highway to encephalitis. As the article notes, that can kill a person dead.
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What are you talking about? We have the greatest, biggest, baddest, most kinetic and most lethal military in the world, and we need to pump into it 1.5 trillion a year. And that is apart from the 30 billion spent in not winning in Gulf.
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A friend in dentistry once told me that if you want to understand inequality in America, look at people’s teeth. Which is to say- it was bad before these cuts. The situation is dire. And getting worse.
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Fun Fact: In its entire history the US has NOT been at war for a total of ~15 years.
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I’ve been paying out-of-pocket for years, because insurance companies won’t pay for dental care beyond the minimum. The dental coverage at my last job was so poor that I declined and started paying cash for dental care. And I realize that I am fortunate to be able to do that.
I have Type 2 diabetes. When my old root canal failed, causing an infection, I needed the tooth out ASAP. It was nice that I didn’t have to wait for pre-approvals or go to a “network” dentist.
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For what it’s worth (which might be nothing at all), if you are paying out-of-pocket you should talk with your dentist about their fee structure. They probably won’t make as good a deal for you as they will for Delta or Blue Cross, but you might get some sort of break from “list”.
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Good dental care also helps to alleviate other medical issues such as heart, lung and circulatory.
I read a few years ago that the British, once known for having less than stellar teeth now have better teeth than West Virginians.
Once the British got dental care as part of the NHS after WWII not only did their dental health improve but their physical appearance did as well. One of the many reasons why the Beatles as well as the thespian’s became popular was that they had good teeth and a smile.
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Ahem. Most of the northern hemisphere has better teeth than West Virginians.
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