Oral Health Is One Thing Americans Can Agree On
By Kristen Pratt Machado
Originally at decisionsindentistry.com
Summary & scoring by The Bell Brief (Dr. Jennifer Bell) using the Drill-Down Protocol (Drill-Down Score) — not the original publisher.
Why it matters for dental
A national poll shows broad bipartisan support for adding dental coverage to Medicare, signaling potential policy shifts that could expand payer mix and increase patient volume for practices serving older adults, veterans, and people with disabilities.
Key points
- CareQuest Institute for Oral Health poll of 1,000 registered voters found 96% of Democrats, 86% of Republicans, and 92% of independents support including dental coverage in Medicare.
- 95% of Democrats and 80% of Republicans favor financial incentives for dental practices to accept Medicare and Medicaid.
- 78% of respondents classified the lack of dental benefits in Medicare as a crisis or major problem.
- Majorities across parties agreed that workers have paid into Medicare their entire adulthood and it should therefore cover dental care.
Who should care
Read the original on Decisions in Dentistry
Full reporting and any paywall content live on decisionsindentistry.com. We summarize and score; we do not republish.
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