Ohioans Need More Dental Care for Uninsured

People living in Ohio experience a great need for professional dental care. A growing number of people hope that Medicaid will help them get the services needed as they cannot afford services of private clinics. The need in cheap dental services is especially actual among people with low income. Dentists do not want to service people on Medicaid and some patients start reporting that they have been turned away.

Professionals in the sphere of dental services ask lawmakers to participate in solving the current problem as it will be getting worse with time. At the same time, people notice that it becomes harder to find a job as they have problems with teeth. The solution is to provide the uninsured with the services needed and to correct the financial situation in the state.

Missing teeth and poor appearance do not let those people to find a job and the number of people that are on Medicaid is reaching 3 million in Ohio. About 15 years ago, the governors wanted to change the situation by reimbursing dental workers 19 percent of actual fees. But, the inflation and the rise of prices for materials and labs reduced the significance of the financial support.

Dentists cannot manage the expenses associated with serving people on Medicaid and some of them start limiting the number of people serviced or they give up participating in this program at all. Those dentists that cannot serve patients with low income state that the inability to get the timely dental care affects children as well as adults. At the same time, Ohioans start traveling to another state to find a clinic that can provide services to people on Medicaid. Some of the patients come to the hospitals for care as they cannot find any dentist to help them reduce dental pain.

Photo by Miko Booth [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons