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Is a dental benefit needed in Medicare?: patterns of dental care spending and use
Is a dental benefit needed in Medicare?: patterns of dental care spending and use
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- U.S. health reform--monitoring and impact
- Author(s):
- Shartzer, Adele, author
Gangopadhyaya, Anuj, author
Holahan, John, author
Garrett, Bowen, author
Rao, Nikhil, author - Contributor(s):
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, issuing body.
Urban Institute, issuing body. - Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, September 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Insurance, Dental -- economics
Insurance, Vision -- economics
Medically Uninsured -- legislation & jurisprudence
Medicare -- economics
United States - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- The fiscal year 2022 budget resolution proposes to expand Medicare coverage to include dental, vision, and hearing services. To better understand the context around a new proposed dental benefit, we examine dental care utilization and spending overall and for the Medicare population using two national databases. We first show that dental care utilization and spending increase with age. The highest spending levels, aside from those in teenage years, occur at ages 65 to 79. Out-of-pocket spending is highest at the same ages. Traditional Medicare excludes dental coverage, but beneficiaries can access such coverage through employer plans, Medigap coverage, Medicaid, or Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. Still, only about 27 percent of Medicare enrollees’ total dental expenditures are paid by an insurer. We also find substantial differences in dental utilization and spending by race and ethnicity and income. Black Medicare enrollees have lower expenditures than other racial and ethnic groups. People with incomes above 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) have far greater expenditures than those with incomes below the FPL. Most enrollees who use any dental services use preventive services, but those with the highest expenditures have greater utilization of extensive procedures (e.g., fillings and extractions). These findings suggest Medicare enrollees could benefit substantially from policies that would expand dental coverage. Spending burdens would likely be lessened for those with significant spending now, and more enrollees would likely obtain needed dental care.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (17 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918300288006676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918300288006676