Children who get health insurance through Medicaid go to the dentist about half as often as children in Florida who have private insurance, according to a new study out from the American Dental Association and the Health Policy Institute.
There are plenty of dentists in Florida, but only about 10 percent accept Medicaid, said study co-author Marko Vujicic. On average, Medicaid pays about a third of what private insurance pays.
鈥淭o me as an economist, it鈥檚 not rocket science,鈥� Vujicic said. 鈥淚f you design the policy parameters in such a way that it becomes difficult for the providers to participate you are not able to leverage all that excess capacity in the system that clearly exists in my view.鈥�
Sammy Mack is a reporter with SA国际传谋 in Miami. SA国际传谋 is a partner with , which receives support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Copyright 2020 WUSF Public Media - WUSF 89.7. To see more, visit . 9(MDAyNDY5MjM1MDEyODE2MzMyMTZmZDQwMg001))
