Higher Medicaid Payments Makes More Kids' Visits

A new study came to the conclusion that children on Medicaid visit dentists more frequently, if Medicaid pays the dentists more.

The study considered nationwide data for the years of 2000 and 2008, focusing on Medicaid payment levels to dentists.  The researchers also checked whether or not children had visited a dentist in the last 6 months.  "For each $10.00 increase in Medicaid payments, children on Medicaid were about 4% more likely to have a recent dental visit," the study says.

However, it turns out that children on Medicaid are less likely to visit dentist regularly than those with private insurance.  Only about half of children on Medicaid have regular dental visits.  The difference is tangible, specifically in comparison with the 68% of children who have private insurance.

It goes without saying that Medicaid is much better than no insurance (it covers approximately 1 in 4 U.S children,) especially considering the fact that only 27% of uninsured children saw a dentist regularly.

Despite the fact that Medicaid is a federal program, it also gets state funding, which correspondingly means that Medicaid payments to dentists depend on state.

Source: Journal of the American Medical Association