Gov cuts dental care to the most vunerable, what will it really cost us.

http://fleshandstone.net/healthandsciencenews/dental.html

Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty proposes eliminating dental care programs for all adults saying they can go to the emergency room for their dental-related severe pain, trauma or infections instead. The Minnesota Dental Association suggests that will be quite costly.

Budget cuts to state dental care programs proposed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be a costly shift that will end up costing state taxpayers more, say Minnesota dentists.

“Non-pregnant adults would continue to receive emergency dental care through hospital emergency departments for emergencies such as severe pain, trauma or infections,”

Hospital emergency rooms aren’t set up as dentist’s offices. They can supply patients with pain medications for tooth aches and antibiotics for dental infections but they don’t extract teeth. “They can’t actually perform dental procedures so there will be repeated visits,” says Tom Day, director of legislative affairs for the Minnesota Dental Association (MDA).

(Pawlenty will probably be out of office, but tbey time we get the bill from all the emergencies related to lack of dental care).

Maybe we can ask Pawlenty forego dental insurnace for him and his family and they can just go to the Emergency room for care.

BY LAW, in Minnesota physicians cannot treat teeth except pain meds and antibiotics.

There is a three month wait NOW to see an oral surgeon that accepts medical assistance or other MN health problems without fees in the Twin Cities even in emergencies. There are some that work for reduced costs but many people who qualify for medical assistance cannot afford even the reduced costs and the dental plans open for Minnesota Care are the same.

A few years ago there was ONE clinic in the state that took Minnesota Medicaid. At the same time the U of MN stopped providing free care. During that time the law said that a dentist had to accept was offered and not bill patients any more. During that time a family was in the ER 5 times for life threatening infections because the problems were not being addressed by a dentist. She waited five years for SSDI with three certified disabilities.

People die from dental problems, they cannot work because of the pain or disfigurement.

If Pawlenty wants to forgo dental care for himself and his family for ten years then he can do this otherwise it is criminal. The 12 million dollars that has been spent on the frivolous legal battle for the Senate seat would have gone a long way to providing care for Minnesotans not to mention the other wasted money.

STUPID, STUPID, STUPID and CRUEL

The reimbursement is so low that a dentist can barely even break even with it.