--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Gillam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- Vaj wrote: > > > > There are programs that let people go to the dentist. Medicare covers > > dental care. > > > > If anything there are more people who have medicare/medicaid > > accessing healthcare than you are aware. > > Medicare reimburses for less than it costs to > provide the services. Hence, Medicare patients > must be subsidized by paying patients. This > works out okay in larger hospitals that have > healthy balance sheets, but falls apart with > dentistry and other small private practices.
Again, we're all getting our terms mixed up: Medicaid for the poor; Medicare for the elderly (NOT a poverty program)...Medicare pays about 80% of the costs and the beneficiary must either pay the balance himself or take out "gap" insurance to pay the balance. Medicaid usually pays 100% of the cost. > > Most dentists are very entrepreneurial, working > alone or with a partner. They are loath to get > paid less than the market rate, for demand is > high. Where I live, it's not uncommon to have > to wait months for a routine appointment. > > In the Seacoast Region of New Hamsphire a few > years ago, not one dentist accepted Medicare > patients, and no one speciazed in pediatric > dentistry. For that reason, one of the community > hospitals, Exeter Hospital, funded a pediatric > dentistry practice that accepts Medicare patients > and offers other means for low-income families > to obtain oral health care. > > The hospital went one step further and invested > half a million dollars in a mobile dentistry clinic. > > See http://tinyurl.com/7c75o. > > Such steps are remarkable, but hardly universal. > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
