Under Iowa’s current dental Medicaid system, many low-income children and adults are having a hard time finding the oral health care they desperately need. As a dentist in Vinton, I have seen firsthand the unfortunate consequences of what can happen when people can’t find a dentist — people in severe pain seek dental care in hospital emergency departments, lose all of their natural teeth prematurely, and children miss school unnecessarily. Without access to preventive and restorative care, dental problems will always get worse and thus become more serious and more costly to treat.

While I want to provide quality oral health care to all our citizens, including the most vulnerable, Iowa’s current Medicaid program reimburses only 30-40 cents for every dollar of care I provide. Iowa’s dental Medicaid reimbursement rates have not changed in nearly 20 years, and they are now well below the cost of overhead for dental offices. When Medicaid reimbursements don’t cover overhead costs, dentists have no choice but to reduce the number of Medicaid patients they treat or stop treating Medicaid patients altogether.

What we are left with is a Medicaid system that requires patients to travel long distances, such as to the University of Iowa College of Dentistry, to receive care, when they could have received optimal dental care locally. In fact, I have several patients myself who have moved away but continue to come back to me in Vinton because they can’t find a Medicaid dentist in their area.

Iowa’s Medicaid program relies on private dental practices just like mine as the primary partner to deliver high quality dental care to Medicaid enrollees, and I am happy to give back to the community that gives so much to me. You may wonder why I see Medicaid patients at all, and it’s because of the people.

Iowa has a simple choice. We can either continue to underfund the dental Medicaid program, leading to fewer and fewer options for patients on Medicaid to seek care, or adequately fund the program to ensure that low-income Iowans find a local dental home where their oral health can be maintained. I urge Iowa’s lawmakers to properly fund Iowa’s dental Medicaid program to help ensure Iowans can access these essential services.

Sara Stuefen, DDS, practices in Vinton and is the current Chair of the Iowa Dental Association’s Medicaid Committee. Dr. Stuefen treats Iowans in need on a daily basis, and volunteers her time at the Iowa Mission of Mercy (IMOM) annually.

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