The financial impact of removing the adult dental Medicaid benefit 

Advertisement

The total cost of getting rid of the adult dental Medicaid benefit is projected to be nearly $2 billion per year, according to a report from the American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute.

The elimination of the benefit would limit access to preventive and early intervention dental care, leading to worse oral and overall health and higher healthcare costs in the future. 

The ADA calculated the cost of removing the dental Medicaid benefit for patients with coronary artery disease, diabetes, who are pregnant who do not receive care for periodontics, as well as the expected cost of increased emergency department visits for dental conditions due to losing access to routine dental care.

Here is the total estimated increase in healthcare costs associated with the different medical conditions if the adult dental benefit was removed in each state:

Notes: States that do not have an adult dental Medicaid benefit or are emergency only were not included. The results in states that expanded adult dental Medicaid benefits since 2021 (Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Tennessee) are underestimated.

Alaska: $9,563,390

Arkansas: $8,205,910

California: $400,001,393

Colorado: $47,297,804

Connecticut: $43,730,701

Delaware: $3,827,575

District of Columbia: $10,268,008

Hawaii: $4,546,749

Idaho: $10,674,202

Illinois: $73,486,235 

Indiana: $54,595,457

Iowa: $25,150,209

Kansas: $7,888,601 

Kentucky: $31,163,701 

Louisiana: $34,108,547

Maine: $4,841,719

Maryland: $25,625,442

Massachusetts: $74,137,474

Michigan: $78,892,891

Minnesota: $48,975,103 

Montana: $9,984,245

Nebraska: $11,790,129

New Hampshire: $1,573,561

New Jersey: $87,434,925

New Mexico: $23,311,915 

New York: $255,778,913

North Carolina: $61,524,025

North Dakota: $1,812,737

Ohio: $110,827,121

Oklahoma: $17,666,327

Oregon: $51,028,139

Pennsylvania: $101,713,818

Rhode Island: $8,977,866

South Carolina: $15,612,617

South Dakota: $3,952,263

Tennessee: $2,830,451

Vermont: $6,915,861

Virginia: $38,985,113

Washington: $55,505,997

West Virginia: $10,801,094

Wisconsin: $37,366,889

Wyoming: $1,593,634

Advertisement

Next Up in Benchmarking

Advertisement