Declining Health Benefits Means Fewer Dentists

As employers curtail health benefits, a Pew Report says that we will see a shortage of dentists—and by implication, have worse dental health. Highlights: 1. 127 million Americans lack dental insurance. 2. the supply of dentists is not meeting the demand for care, and this shortage is expected to intensify over the next 10 years. 3. There are 71 million children and adults who rely on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, but only one-third of dentists cared for patients on public insurance in 2013 due to low reimbursement rates and burdensome paperwork. 4. In 2012, there were more than two million dental-related visits to hospital emergency rooms – most could have been addressed earlier in a dental office. The cost for this care was about $1.6 billion. The story is here.