Oral health plays a critical role in overall health and impacts the way we eat, sleep, and live. Even so, many Nebraskans still do not get the dental care they need. Nebraskans with Medicaid are at particular risk of facing barriers to oral health care and struggling to find providers who can meet their needs.
Increasing access to dental care in Nebraska’s Medicaid program presents a wide range of benefits, from improving individual health to addressing disparities to supporting the economy. To make those benefits a reality, we recommend Four Policy Actions to Improve Access to Dental Services for Nebraskans with Medicaid:
- Ensure providers can maximize their abilities to see as many Medicaid patients as possible through teledentistry and robust utilization of Public Health Registered Dental Hygienists (PHRDH).
- Incentivize participation in Nebraska Medicaid through provider rates and loan repayment.
- Expand the dental workforce to allow more professionals to see patients by authorizing international dentists and mid-level providers like dental therapists.
- Federal policies, even those not directly connected to Medicaid, are also necessary to improve access to oral health care for Nebraskans, including improving access to dental care in Medicare and for veterans and through repealing harmful health care cuts from the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
For more details on these policy action items and the current state of access to dental care in Nebraska Medicaid, check out our new and updated policy brief that outlines the current landscape and policy options to improve access to dental care and increase provider participation in Nebraska Medicaid.
If you have encountered issues accessing oral health care, we want to hear from you! Reach out to us at neappl.es/healthstory.