ADEA Testifies before Congress on Access to Oral Health Care for Children in Medicaid

Nine million children lack health insurance coverage, but three times as many (20 million) have no coverage for dental services. Although Medicaid is a major source of care for approximately one-quarter of all children and half of the nation’s poor children, millions of children enrolled in publicly insured programs still experience difficulties receiving care. Economic challenges have increased the demand for Medicaid services and have created budget shortfalls in most states. Since 2008, 15 states have made dental cuts. Some of these cuts have impacted children’s access to dental care.

Dental clinics operated by ADIs, especially those that place dental students and faculty into underserved communities make up a part of the dental safety net for underserved children.  Few of these programs, however, receive public subsidies to help pay for uncompensated dental care. ADI clinics provide screenings, preventive treatment that can save public programs money by treating oral health problems before they become more serious, and referral services to specialty dentists that are generally not available to Medicaid or CHIP patients. Students at most ADIs also participate in community-based rotations that expose them to the needs of more vulnerable populations and increase their level of cultural competency.

“Academic Dental Institutions have a human and financial stake in preserving the basic foundation and funding of the Medicaid program and in ensuring that the nation’s youngest, poorest, and sickest citizens have access to basic and preventive oral health services. ADEA and its members are doing all they can to improve access to care for low income and disadvantaged children,” said Dr. Catalanotto, who is also a Past President of ADEA.

ADEA presented a list of recommendations that included increased funding for community-based service learning programs within ADIs; federal funding to states for school-based oral health promotion; education and prevention programs; and the inclusion of oral health benefits for children in any health care reform bill passed by Congress.

ADEA members Joel H. Berg, D.D.S., M.S., Chairman of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Washington School of Dentistry and Burton L. Edelstein, D.D.S., M.P.H., Professor of Dentistry and Health Policy and Management at Columbia University also provided testimony. Dr. Berg represented Washington State’s “Access to Baby and Child Dentistry” program (ABCD) and Dr. Edelstein, who is Founder and Chairman of the Children’s Dental Health Project (CDHP), testified on behalf of that organization. The hearing was held by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Domestic Policy. Chaired by Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), it addressed improvements in the Medicaid program that would help increase access to oral health care for eligible children.