Objectives Of Access To Dental Coverage

The benefits and drawbacks of having state health programs verses one that is uniform across the country can vary on a broad basis. Medicare and Medicaid are state and federally funded health programs; programs that must be fair and allow access to everyone across the country that are enrolled and eligible to receive such benefits. In addition, these programs have unlimited caps so that there is flexibility to continue financing care without delay. The Medicare program was designed to provide access to health care for those who are not able to afford appropriate health care and meet the needs of vulnerable communities. If it were not for the assistance of the federal government in providing states the necessary funds to continue providing health

Medicaid is a social health care program that covers nearly 60 million Americans, including children, pregnant women, seniors, parents and individuals suffering with disabilities. Medicaid is the biggest source of funding for health related services and medical needs for the people with low income in the United States. This program is funded jointly by the state and federal level governments, but it is the state’s responsibility to manage this program. The Medicaid program is not a required program that states have to use, but all 50 states have implemented this program. With the introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and its passing in 2010, the ACA unveiled its plans to expand Medicaid eligibility to nearly all low-income adults as an addition to the other groups that fall into the Medicaid eligibility. The Medicaid program had “many gaps in coverage for adults” because it was only restricted to the low income individuals and other people with needs in their own specific category. In the past, the majority of the states who had adults that did not have children dependent on those parents were not eligible for Medicaid. These low income adults without dependent children would be without medical insurance assistance before the ACA was introduced. Medicaid is now available to all Americans under the age of 65 whose family income is at or below the federal poverty guideline of “133 percent or $14,484 for an individual and $29,726 for a family of four in 2011” (NSCL).

The problem in accessing dental care for low-income community is complex and cannot be determined simply. Lack of utilisation is as a result of lack of demands for dental health (Al Agili, Bronstein & Greene-McIntyre 2005). Demand also depends on the economic condition that supports the patients. At the individual level it has been known for years that financial reason is an essential barrier for not able to visit a dentist (Wallet et al. 2014). However, in this case, the Government try to assist low-income people by reducing financial barrier through the benefit offering by CDBS. Even though the scheme has not maximally encouraged those are eligible for the scheme. In addition to the financial barrier, perceived need is one of the reasons

As society continues to age, one fourth of the world will be 65 years or older, thanks to the influx of baby boomers. Due to this rapid growth in longevity, this will multiply the problem of access to care. Attention towards systemic conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and strokes are being discussed by government agencies and health care professionals. (Overview of oral health, 2017). There is evidence linking oral health to systemic health, therefore, a need for a more collaborative approach towards prevention is critical to achieve overall health for the public (Jin, 2016).

One of the main components that had given the Affordable Care Act issues with the uninsured rate in the United States is the growth of the Medicaid program. The Affordable Care Act granted all 50 states billions of dollars in federal financial aid to increase their Medicaid program to insure people who made up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Starting at the beginning of 2016, the federal government reduced its federal aid, covering less than 10 percent of what was promised, which ended up putting more of the responsibility of insuring Medicaid qualified Americans on the states. This caused a fallout of state governors being against ObamaCare, resulting with having 21 states declining any federal funding or expands their

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) which was passed by Congress was implemented to improve the quality of health care and reduce the cost of health insurance in the United State. America spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation in the world. In North Carolina, the governor signed a bill to block the state from extending the ACA which will allow Medicaid to cover group of individuals that are uninsured. North Carolina rank 33rd of the 50 states in population measures in 2012 and rank 38th in health outcome (Siberman, 2013). In 2010-2011 approximately 1.7 million people were uninsured and had barriers to access health care in North Carolina as

Throughout the early 1980’s and 1990’s the Federal Medicaid program was challenged by rapidly rising Medicaid program costs and an increasing number of uninsured population. One of the primary reasons for the overall increase in healthcare costs is the

Expansion of the Medicaid program is an important part of the PPACA (Vincent & Reed, 2014). To decrease the number of Americans without health insurance coverage, the Medicaid expansion is designed to provide coverage for individuals with incomes of up to 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL). Individuals with incomes of 100% to 400% of the FPL, who did not qualify for Medicaid, would be eligible for subsidies in the Insurance Marketplaces mandated by the passage of the PPACA (Sommers, 2015) . In the states that do not expand Medicaid, Sommers (2015) notes that individuals who do not qualify for Medicaid and have incomes below the criteria to receive insurance subsidies in the healthcare marketplace will remain uninsured. The Medicaid program is jointly funded by the federal

In Ohio, the financial aspects of ACA implementation are numerous. A large amount of Ohioans received an average tax credit of $244 per month while about half that number, 41% of enrollees, were able to secure insurance for $100 or less (United States of America, 2015). One million dollars was received in research grants for Marketplace innovation and improvement and funds that were originally spent on salaries and marketing were diverted to care improvement through the 80/20 rule (United States of America, 2015). Large amounts of funds were made available to combat premium increases which have saved approximately one billion dollars nationally (United States of America, 2015). Over $217 million has been made available for primary care services in community health settings with an additional $33 million ear marked for prevention and public health needs (United States of America, 2015). I believe this feature will have the greatest impact on health in Ohio. Increased funding for community projects naturally leads to increased preventative measures and decreased health care costs overall. Close to $235 million was saved in prescription costs by those enrolled in Ohio Medicare through the closure of the medication coverage gap (United States of America, 2015). This results in an average saving of $980 per

Medicaid initially established that each state is responsible for designing their medical costs to pay medical care for the poor. Also, Medicaid created as a voluntary program for each state; they have to have the choice to participate. For one thing, because of the rising costs of healthcare, it has been difficult to bring Medicaid recipients into the “mainstream” of United States (U.S.) medical care. Donald R. Barr notes, “between 1975 and 1989, the cost of the Medicaid program increased by an average of 11.9 percent per year before adjusting for inflation” (172). The rising costs of healthcare are necessary for each state to determine if it is beneficial for them to participate in the Medicaid program. As the government level of payment is determined by each state economic condition. For instance, a state with lower per capita income will receive more government funding. A state with higher per capita income receives less reimbursement for program costs. Therefore, on December 31, 2010, many states continued to experience budget cuts. As a result on August 2010, Congress increased reimbursement rates through June 2011.

Medicaid financing has become an increasing issue for most states throughout the years. The Government Accountability Office (2010) reported that forty-seven of the states as well as the District of Columbia had concerns regarding the sustainability of their program. Around 16% of the state budgets go towards Medicaid each year, totaling around $183 billion (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2015). A significant share of vulnerable populations relies on Medicaid for medical coverage. Rocco, Gellad, & Donohue (2015) estimated that of the

This has a number of perceived benefits such as being able to provide additional public dental care by expanding the public dental labour force significantly3. In particular, this is envisioned to allow for greater access to public dental care in rural areas3. The NHHRC report has suggested that this would also allow for graduate dentists to expand their skill set in an environment where they have more supervision and support before they potentially work independently in the private system1,2. Furthermore, the Department of Health suggests that this also might increase the retention of graduate dentists in the public sector, citing the high retention rate with the Voluntary Dental Graduate Year

With the implementation of the ACA, many states have expanded their Medicaid programs to include a larger population of low income individuals and families that were not able to obtain health insurance prior to the law. Some of the issues that state legislators struggle with are the overall cost of providing services for the additional recipients, staying within budget, determining an adequate approach of offering quality care, and providing adequate coverage for each recipient. Even though the cost of Medicaid expansion within each state has increased the budget for the program, new appraisals has shown that Medicaid programs spend less per enrollee than commercial health insurance and much of the increase in Medicaid expenses originate from the increase in enrollment in the programs (Coughlin, Long, Clemens-Cope, & Resnick, 2013).

The following analysis will explore the current health insurance problem under the ACA. It will discuss the proposed policy of Medicaid Expansion and the impact of States not cooperating with the implementation of such provision. Moreover, a recommendation on strategies to alleviate the health

The economy plays an important factor of what people want to spend their money on. Dental/ oral health care is important to most people in today’s today world. Since the dental/ oral health industry is very big there are many trends that are arising such as the cost of dental care increase or decreasing, market of the industry and lastly global dental industry.