Medicaid Talking Points

• Current services do not meet the need in Washington.  Washington’s dental professionals treat about 116,000 Medicaid adults annually, only one-fourth of the eligible population. The cost of the adult program in FY 2008 was 37.8 million, funded by the state with a 50% federal match. Funding was reduced by the Legislature in 2003 by 25 percent and again in 2009 by 8 percent.  Charitable dental programs across the state already treat thousands of adults and children who cannot afford dental care. Adding more charitable patients will crush these programs.  

• Eliminating all but emergent adult Medicaid dental coverage could devastate patients’ health. Dental care is important to patients’ overall health.  For example, an abscessed tooth can spread a life-threatening infection to the brain, requiring costly hospitalization. Routine care prevents such infections and other diseases.  

• Reducing or eliminating coverage would only shift the burden to costly emergency room care.  If Medicaid dental is cut for adults, these patients have nowhere to go for acute dental problems except hospital emergency rooms. But most hospitals can’t fix dental problems—they can only prescribe drugs for pain and infection. This makes no economic sense.

• The program serves Washington’s most vulnerable patients. Forty percent of adult Medicaid recipients are severely disabled—with congenital or acquired conditions that make them unable to be self-sufficient.  Many are frail, elderly and indigent, often in nursing homes, and they cannot eat normally without regular oral health care, dentures and preventive treatment. Some medical treatment must include dental care due to side effects of medications or need for preoperative dental health. Other recipients require dental care to assist their employability.

• Cutting coverage will shred Washington’s primary care safety net.  Community health centers (CHCs), the University of Washington School of Dentistry and private dentists all contribute to the primary care safety net and depend on Medicaid funding for maintaining health care staff and services.  Medicaid dental cuts would pose a particular threat to the community health center dental care infrastructure throughout Washington state. This infrastructure took years to put together and would be difficult to rebuild.  Recruiting staff is already a challenge—it would be difficult to restore capacity after cuts in funding or services.