Medicaid dental coverage
originally posted: 11/22/2006 reposted: 2/18/2011 This post has not been recently reviewed or revised by the author and may be out of date. If you notice an error or are in doubt, please send a new question by email or ask for an update. Email asktony@tonynovak.com.
Q: My mother is 73 in MN. She is on Medicare/SS with little to no income or savings. Her teeth are very bad and she needs them all pulled & then have dentures. Talking this evening she says Medicare has not dental coverage. I’m told this could be $10,000 or more.
A: Contact her local Medicaid office (usually run by the County) for available assistance or check into the basic online at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/medicaid.asp . Unfortunately Medicaid programs have cut back on dental benefits in recent years. It would be silly to think that a private health insurer would cover these costs at significantly lower price than the $10,000 you mention, so do not be lured by the array of misleading dental insurance advertisements that flood the Internet. The only legitimate private benefit programs that would help are discount plans that reduce the out of pocket costs but are not insurance. In the event that she does not qualify for Medicaid, then see www.ehealthinsurance.com for one of the best dental discount plans available. That would be better than no price assistance at all.
Summary
More resources:
www.ehealthdiscountplan.com