Dental and vision benefits could be on the chopping block for Ohio's Medicaid recipients as Gov. Bob Taft tries to contain the cost of the inflating program.
Both benefits could be eliminated from the program because they are considered optional services. In other words, the federal government does not require Medicaid programs to offer them. Other optional services have already been eliminated in past budgets, such as chiropractic and independent psychology services for adults, said Ohio Department of Job and Family Services spokesman, Jon Allen.
Medicaid is a state-run health care program for Ohioans who cannot afford health care for themselves or their families. It increased by 13 percent in the past year and had a budget of $10.5 billion dollars in state fiscal year 2005. Average monthly caseloads have also increased from $1.3 million in 2001 to $1.7 million in 2005, said Jennifer Carlson, executive director of the Ohio Commission to Reform Medicaid. In addition, Medicaid is responsible for about 40 percent of the state general revenue spending.
They are proposing to cut vision and dental
both. This has been proposed before and people have fought it and have been able to keep it intact. These services are such a small part of the budget said Athens County Department of Job and Family Services spokeswoman, Tracy Galway.
Dental benefits account for about 1 percent or $117 million of the state Medicaid budget. The state pays $28.4 million for adult dental benefits, and the federal government pays $42 million.
Of the 800,000 Medicaid recipients in Ohio, about 247,000 adults received dental benefits, Allen said, citing the most recent statistics from 2003.
Vision benefits include two categories -optometric services and eyeglasses. About $20 million -less than 1 percent of the Medicaid budget -was spent in total on both categories in 2005, Allen said.
The Commission to Reform Medicaid did not suggest cutting programs, Galway said, When you look at someone's health and issues
it (cutting services) is not an issue.
In the budget two years ago, it was proposed to eliminate dental benefits, but the funding was available to keep adult benefits intact, Allen said.
Several things are being looked at
but there are only three ways you can ultimately reduce expenditures
he said.
Changing the services offered through Medicaid, changing rates paid to providers and changing eligibility standards are the actions being considered to reduce Medicaid costs. The executive budget has a combination of all three, but cutting services is not a foregone conclusion because the formal budget has not been introduced, Allen said.
Ohio dentists would not be affected by the elimination, but the citizens who rely on Medicaid for their services would be.
Bad dental health can lead to other health problems, such as abscesses and bad infections, hospitalizing the patient. In the hospital, the patient usually does not receive treatment for the underlying problem that is still there, creating the possibility for future hospitalizations and Medicaid patient bills, said Ohio Dental Association Executive Director, David Owsiany.
Oral care is the number one unmet health care need in the state of Ohio
and eliminating the dental care plan seems like the wrong prescription. This is not cost effective budget-wise (cutting dental) ... the savings are not going to be realized. Medicaid ends up paying for the care when they end up in the hospital
Owsiany said.
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