Jackie Duda spent nearly a year recovering after a life-threatening case of sepsis. Duda, of New Market, Maryland, was never denied medical care, even when bills from her extended hospital stay and doctors’ visits surpassed $250,000.
But the 61-year-old hasn’t had the same luck with dental bills. As a freelance health journalist, she learned there’s no easy solution.
Her Medicaid insurance won’t cover dental implants, which she needs to replace three teeth that decayed beyond repair because of sepsis and another chronic illness. Even with a discounted rate offered through the University of Maryland’s dental school, Duda doesn’t have $6,000 for the required dental work – charges she hopes to put on a high-interest rate Care Credit account that will only add to her existing credit card debt. Her grown children have offered to help her and her husband, who is on disability and works part-time at Sam’s Club, with these dental costs.
“Who has that kind of money just lying around?” said Duda. “At least hospitals will work with you on costs and even waive some of the payments, but all the dental providers I’ve ever encountered never do.”
There’s a great divide for Americans who need dental care, with some forced to live with pain and shame while others flash five-figure veneers. The government offers no backup plan for the tens of millions without dental insurance, and insured people often struggle to cover out-of-pocket costs if they have extensive dental needs. Since 2014, the Affordable Care Act has provided coverage to millions of Americans through subsidized medical insurance and expanded Medicaid, the federal and state health insurance program for low-income families. The federal law doesn’t mandate adult dental insurance, which means millions of people are routinely denied necessary dental care.
Source: Dental access is an American ‘crisis’: Here’s how vulnerable people are shut out. / USA Today