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5/12/2009
Burri: Imagine. "Universal" dental care doesn't work
The State of Wisconsin provides dental care insurance to all children, and sometimes – depending on income – to their parents. It’s the law.
All-rightee, then. Good. The state offers it. The feds, in fact, require it of programs like Wisconsin’s BadgerCare. And, indeed, thousands upon thousands of low-income children and their families are covered.
They need it, they get it. Done deal. What’s on TV?
Oh, but wait:
Fewer than one in four children ages 3 to 19 insured through what is now BadgerCare Plus saw a dentist in 2007, according to the state Department of Health Services.
It means more than 300,000 children in the program that year did not see a dentist.
I know what you’re thinking. The same thing I thought: that’s got to be wrong. It can’t be right. I mean…the government is doing it. They guarantee it. And that means…well, that has to mean: universal!
Doesn’t it?
Apparently not.
It’s a source of amazement and amusement to me that so many intelligent, educated people will go on and on, screaming from the rooftops, that We Need Universal Health Care. And then they’ll expect that, because the government is doing it, everybody’s got it.
Single-payer, government-run. Socialized medicine, really, but don’t you dare call it that. We need to take the profits out of health care! So everyone can have it!
Except…everyone doesn't have it. Even though the government is doing it.
The state budgets relatively little money for dental care: roughly $37.50 a year for each person covered by BadgerCare Plus or Medicaid outside of southeast Wisconsin in the 2008 fiscal year.
That's less than a commercial dental plan would pay for a cleaning for a teenager or adult, or for a one-surface filling for a child.
The allocation was slightly higher for children and their parents in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine and Kenosha counties.
The result: Few dentists accept patients covered by BadgerCare Plus or other Medicaid programs.
The state pays dentists between $13 and $16 for a periodic oral exam, according to the story. Is that even enough to pay a dental assistant for an hour?
Is it enough to cover the cost of doing the paperwork?
So the state “offers” dental care – “guarantees” it for kids and their families (depending on income), and then they underpay the providers to such an extent that those same families can’t find a dentist who will take them.
It’s universal!
The obvious solution is to pay dentists more. That, at least, would be honest: don’t guarantee the service, oh mighty Government, without being willing to pay for it.
Except, you know, we’ve got a bit of a budget problem in Wisconsin right now. And when I say “right now,” I mean “for the past eight years or so.” The state budget has been in “crisis” for quite some time. And even if it weren’t, there are so many spending interests out there fighting for more taxpayer money…
There’s no guarantee that dental coverage would get and then keep full funding, no matter what.
People go without, even when the government provides. Just because the government’s doing it doesn’t make it universal. Providers have to be paid. Their employees have to be paid. They have their own expenses to meet.
As government-run health care comes closer and closer to reality, governments are going to find that paying those bills is harder than they thought. As governments cut costs to make the budget fit, providers will bow out.
I guess the bright side is: job security for the "universal" health care lobby.
Lance Burri is a contributor to the Badger Blog Alliance and The TrogloPundit.
COMMENTS
Gracias, Herr Burri, for anther humorous insight into Follies Liberal. The Campaign Finance Reform lobby – CFR boogiemen – enjoy similar job security as the health care unies. CFR will never happen either.
timbeaux (Tue May 12 07:29:52 2009)
Hey tim, you would not be talking about my friend Jack, would you?
Once again, Lance nails a bulls eye. And just a reminder to all those who want more services, and ultimately to tax us more, our federal deficit this year is more likely to be $3 Trillion or more than any number under $2 Trillion.
Ken Van Doren (Tue May 12 07:52:04 2009)
Hey, Appleton Patriot – are you really Steve Kagen? LUIC [laugh until I cry]
timbeaux (Tue May 12 10:46:28 2009)
T. Jefferson: "Government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have." and, "History convinces me the most bad government results from too much government."
emily matthews (Tue May 12 08:11:35 2009)
I am a practicing dentist and you are absolutely correct. The Governor may sound good when he promises "government" sponsored care avaialble "for all", but when he can't deliver it's no suprise. What Badger Care pays for dentistry - about $36.00 per year per qualified patient - wouldn't even pay the dental assistant. It's no wonder that we can not afford to treat with that reimbursement schedule. Losing huge dollars for each patient seen can not be made up by "the efficiency improvements" of seeing more patients as our Governor has claimed.
Appleton Patriot (Tue May 12 10:14:10 2009)
This blog shows that you can lead a conservative to water, but you can't make him think.*
If you can't blame poor people for the high cost of medical care, who can you blame? Liberals. Surely not the medical-industrial complex. Surely not the insurance companies that spend billions shuffling paper and denying claims.
The liberals are at fault for trying to make an imperfect world better. How dare they?
---
(* Inspired by Dorothy Parker's famous response when asked to use "horticulture" in a sentence.)
Rich Eggleston (Tue May 12 13:24:10 2009)
Wow.. In Florida, they arrest you for not taking kids to the dentist.
Rich (Tue May 12 23:10:31 2009)
Let their teeth rot. Poor children don't deserve teeth. It's the way of the exalted, infallible free market.
Northern Pike (Thu May 14 08:37:36 2009)
Kudos for the spotlight on this preview of universal "health" care. Liberals love these feel good "wooden nickel" funded programs. When they don't work they are surprised (or feign surprise and outrage) but eventually nothing useful ever gets done.
The only silver lining with universal health care that I and see is failure of the universal health care system and the emergence of a real free market based system based on menu pricing.
dagny taggart (Thu May 14 15:24:49 2009)
Right, Rich, the dentists are jacking up their prices in order to soak patients on BadgerCare.
You're "trying to make an imperfect world better." You MEAN well. You're causing an artificial limit to the supply of dental care, but you mean well. You're pushing higher costs onto those who pay for their own care or insurance, but you mean well. That's what's important to you: not that the problem gets better, but that you mean well.
Lance Burri (Thu May 14 21:36:09 2009)
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