Posted on 08/30/2021 1:37:47 PM PDT by algore
Nearly half of Americans 65 and over didn’t visit a dentist in the last year, and nearly one in five have lost all their natural teeth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There’s growing evidence that dental problems can worsen other health conditions that Medicare does cover.
Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who is the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, has played a crucial role in advancing the measure. He recalled living as a young man in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, five miles from the clinic where Ms. Hayes received her care, and learning that many residents lacked access to dentists. “A child who lived nearby, his teeth were literally rotting in his mouth,” he said.
Since then, the situation in Vermont has improved. Community health centers serve about a quarter of the state’s population. The state’s Medicaid program pays for preventive care and for up to $1,000 a year in other treatment for children and poor adults. But it does not pay for dentures, which can run into the thousands of dollars. Nationwide, around half of Americans 65 and older lack any source of dental insurance.
With so many uninsured older patients, dentists like Dr. Adrienne Rulon, who treated Ms. Hayes, practice triage. Certain teeth — like the eye teeth and first molars — are more important to save. Filling a cavity in one tooth is less expensive than a root canal in another. Sometimes, patients will come in for an exam, learn about more expensive problems, then disappear for months while they save money for the procedure. “People are having to pick and choose,” she said. “It’s a huge untreated population
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This should tell you everything you need to know about socialized medicine.
Look at how long they’ve waited to provide basic preventative care.
And I’ll bet when they do provide coverage, it sucks.
They pull your teeth and replace them with Stainless Steel
More free stuff for EVERYBODY.
We can all party until the fake money blows up.
Great, now dental care prices will go through the roof.
Then we would have lots of Stainless Steel Rats...
(apologies to Harry Harrison)
Medicare doesn’t cover a damn thing. Taxpayers do, it’s just that government/lobbists/etc gets a taste as the $ flow through.
Where’s Slippery Jim when ya need him? :-)
You can get individual dental plans for less than 20 bucks a month if you stay in the network. My blue cross Medicare will reimburse a portion of my dental bill.
Even during my poor days my wife and I always managed to find money to take care of our teeth. It’s a matter of priority. For some people, tattooing and cable television are more important than dentistry, so they give priority to tattooing and cable television.
If the goal was better medical care, Fedzilla would get the bleep out if the way and allow a thriving insurance market to flourish. And provide taxpayer subsidized coverage to the truly indigent.
But Medicare, like every other effing government program, is really about control.
thought they were above and beyond
As a brand new Medicare recipient, I’m glad!
This should have been taken care of years ago.
The right way.
Medicare will eff this up, though, because the elderly aren’t the customer/patient.
They’re the grist for Deep State and Big Med’s medical mills.
“More free stuff for EVERYBODY.”
Not necessarily true. I paid close to $50,000 in Medicare expenses (widowed so late wife paid additional $30,000) over the last 50 years. Add $180,000 in Social Security that should have been collecting interest.
Imagine how much my Social Security would be worth now if it could have collected 5-6% interest all these years.
But the point is... I doubt I will live long enough to collect a fraction of the money I put in even without it collecting interest. My late wife got zero benefit from these taxes.
Whatever one thinks of Medicare, there never was any logical reason why it wouldn’t provide dental care.
And you just got me thinking of something...
What about Medicare Medicaid dual eligibles...
Wonder what their dental coverage 8s going to look like...
Sure there was a logical reason.
Fedzilla doesn’t give a rat’s patootie about the people they cover.
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