commentaries

From the article: "[The Minnesota Dental Association] is committed to working with the Legislature to find effective, bipartisan solutions." Suggestion: Urge the State Legislature to raise the minimum wage so workers will be able to provide dental care for their families and so we taxpayers will not continue subsidizing profit-hoarding employers.

I hope this gets the support it deserves. Way too many people go without any dental care.

It astounds me how dental care is treated like an expensive luxury in this country, especially with everything we are coming to know about the relationship between dental health and overall health, such the correlation dental plaque and arterial plaque. Our teeth are part of our bodies and need to be treated accordingly. Dental care should be as easy to get and insured in a similar manner as regular health care.

"Urge the State Legislature to raise the minimum wage so workers will be able to provide dental care for their families and so we taxpayers will not continue subsidizing profit-hoarding employers." == Pumice while I agree that the minimum wage should be raised, taking it to $9.50/hour isn't going to put dental care within the reach of people (especially families) making that wage. We need to expand Medicare/Medicaid/ and MSHO coverage for dental problems and private insurance needs to lift the standard $1000 - $1500 annual maximums. My dentist told me that those have been the maximums for 30 or more years. And, as said above, we need to treat dental care as a medical necessity.

Here's a perfect example from my own practice. I saw a gentleman in December for a partial denture. After waiting 4 MONTHS, the state finally sent a check for the services for $360. My lab bill was $410. I'd like to help more, but with a fee schedule like that I simply cannot afford to.

"The current rate of reimbursement for MA dental providers is based on 1989-92 rates and has not been increased in 14 years... This is why the association is supporting a bill at the Minnesota Legislature that would set dental fee reimbursement at 75 percent of the 2011 rates" Can someone explain to me what this means? It sounds like his association is advocating for a 25% CUT in their rates.

Your teeth are a part of your body and should be covered as part of every health insurance plan in the state. But in actual practice they are considered an afterthought in the insurance industry. I had a plan designed for seniors with Delta Dental where I paid premiums and they rarely covered my actual dental care. The legislature should change that situation.

How about people not have families and others to support until such a time that they can afford health care, dental care, child care, eye care, education, food etc, etc... I used to be a very compassionate person, but seeing everyone wanting to take more and more out of others wallets to pay for things they should be responsible for themselves has pushed me to a non-caring person. And I hate that.

"How about people not have families and others to support until such a time that they can afford health care, dental care, child care, eye care, education, food etc, etc.." == A lot of people who did wait now find themselves in situations where they need help thanks to a layoff or other financial disaster they couldn't predict. And, for those who didn't wait, do you want to make their kids suffer? If you want to worry about the people taking more out of your wallet concern yourself with the oil companies and other companies collecting corporate welfare. It's not the poor that are hurting us who are a bit more fortunate or taking more than their share in assistance.

Re: "[W]hile I agree that the minimum wage should be raised, taking it to $9.50/hour isn't going to put dental care within the reach of people (especially families) making that wage." Of course it won't, buttles, a worker earning $9.50 an hour will still have a below-poverty income. However, the minimum wage needs updating as much as the method for reimbursing dentists who serve the underserved needs updating. Minnesota is one of four states which has a minimum wage less than the federal minimum wage. 25% of minimum wage workers have children to support. The biggest categories of minimum wage work are restaurant workers and hospital workers. Minnesota should not help The Market undervalue work. If dentists can help drill the moral necessity of valuing work into the Legislature, more power to them.