Taking It in the Teeth
Budget crisis decimates dental care options for the poor
(June 11, 2009) Wayne Atkins is in a race: against cancer and the California budget.
The state’s decision to eliminate adult dental care and eight other “optional” benefits from the Medi-Cal program effective July 1 recently sent Atkins and countless other North Coast residents into an all-out scramble to complete costly dental work prior to the state’s funding cutoff. In Atkins’ case, chemical and radiation therapies prescribed after the removal of a malignant tumor from his throat weren’t optional. Neither was having his teeth removed at the start of the year.
“They took them out so there’d be no chance of infection,” Atkins said in late May. “That was my choice: lose my teeth or no chemo.”
Now that his cancer treatments are done, Atkins has five dental appointments scheduled this month at the Burre Dental Center. He hopes to have his dentures in place by July 1.
Daniel Huffman isn’t so lucky.
“They gave me this contract that said Medi-Cal was going to be gone and they may not be able to get all the denture work done before then,” Huffman said after a mid-week visit to a crowded Burre center. “They told me in a worst-case scenario it might end up costing me $1,500 to $1,600. I ain’t got that kind of money and there’s nowhere I can get it.”
The same applies to the state. Leaders reached a budget agreement in February that cut not only the $56 million provision for adult dental care but also the so-called optional coverage for chiropractic services, acupuncture, psychological care, podiatry, audiology, optometry and speech therapy. The news got worse in late May, when government leaders announced a series of draconian cuts to close what is now a projected $24.3 billion deficit.
“Forty percent of our income comes from Medi-Cal, and all of that is under threat,” said Hermann Spetzler, executive director of the Open Door Community Health Centers.
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