Many dentists in the U.S. are willing to provide care to Medicare recipients if dental benefits are added to the federal program.
That is according to Cassandra Yarbrough, MPP, lead public policy analyst at the Health Policy Institute — an American Dental Association think tank — who spoke at APHA’s 2018 Annual Meeting and Expo.
In the institute’s 2017 survey of 20,000 licensed and active dentists ages 55 and younger, more than 50 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed that government has a role in providing oral health care to those ages 65 and older. Almost 28 percent supported a benefit that provided preventive services, while 36 percent supported a comprehensive plan. About 25 percent supported no plan.
Medicare covers 59 million people, but only one-third of beneficiaries have some level of dental coverage, primarily through Medicare Advantage plans. At the Nov. 12 meeting session on equity in access to dental health care, Yarbrough, an APHA member, said there has been an uptick in recent years in calls for dental coverage under Medicare. In July, a coalition of consumer advocacy groups released the white paper “An Oral Health Benefit in Medicare Part B: It’s Time to Include Oral Health in Health Care.”
Despite the survey findings, the American Dental Association does not endorse adding dental benefits to Medicare coverage, though a recent resolution adopted by the organization called on its leadership to review dental care in seniors, including Medicare.
For more on the paper, visit www.ada.org.
A version of this story was published on APHA’s Annual Meeting Blog.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
