Oral Health is Important!
All Nebraskans need access to quality, affordable health care. Even though oral health is a critical part of overall health, many Nebraskans do not get the care they need. This is particularly true in the Medicaid program, which provides health coverage to hundreds of thousands of Nebraskans. Even though some dental coverage is included in Nebraska Medicaid, a majority of adults with this coverage are not utilizing any dental services, suggesting that there are additional barriers to care. Fortunately, steps can be taken to improve dental access in Nebraska’s Medicaid program.
In our Core Issues Paper, Oral Health is Key to Overall Health: Improving Dental Coverage in Nebraska Medicaid, we provide an overview of the status of Nebraska Medicaid’s dental coverage and explore a wide-range of policies that can help improve access.
What can be done?
Nebraska can take action to improve Medicaid dental access by:
- Improving dental provider search tools and data;
- Increasing the number of Medicaid oral health providers;
- Providing additional, necessary oral health coverage and services; and
- Prioritizing feedback from Medicaid enrollees.
Learn more about these potential policy solutions in our Medicaid Dental Policy Brief here.
Passionate about dental care?
We’d love to hear from you! Reach out to our new Health Care Community Organizer Freedom Thompson at fthompson@neappleseed.org.
Oral health is essential to overall health, and we know that our communities are stronger when everyone has meaningful access to health care.