Since it’s not always covered by Medicaid, dental care for adults has become a luxury that only the upper-middle and upper class can afford – at least in some states. Cost is the main barrier that stops people in the middle- and low-income families from being able to access dental care.

According to a recent survey of the American Dental Association, no less than 20 percent of low-income adults are in need of dental care they cannot afford, for their mouth and teeth are in poor condition.

In response to the crisis that appears on the horizon, the Department of Health & Human Services has awarded last month $156 million to 420 health centers across the United States.

The funding’s main target is to address the worrying demand for affordable dental coverage in various states. The department has revealed that 108 million Americans benefit from no dental insurance, and even for those who are covered, accessibility issues arise.

Medicaid or not, dental care is not affordable for many

Some of the people who are covered by Medicaid have confessed they have trouble getting appointments, mostly because doctors do not have enough incentives to treat them (reimbursement rates are often too low).

Therefore, a lot of people resort to health centers for their dental care. However, seeing that these centers depend on federal funding, they often face problems in providing the kind of dental services the patients need.

According to Marko Vujicic, leading economist of the Health Policy Institute in the American Dental Association, coverage is still the biggest issue. More and more adults have been reporting financial obstacles to accessing dental care.

“Dental insurance is not really health insurance. Health insurance is to help you smooth out the risk, it protects people from catastrophic costs”, Vujicic explained.

At the same time, it’s not really news that dental health coverage is not helping people; even dentists know it. Reports show that in 2015, only half of those with dental insurance had at least one dentist appointment, compared to merely 17 percent of the completely uninsured.

Seeing that tooth decay and periodontal disease are both considered a key factor in the development of heart disease, both of these numbers are abysmal.
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