Dental Care Difficult to Access for Wisconsin Families Enrolled in Public Health Insurance Programs

Low-income Wisconsin families often face "major barriers" to receiving basic dental care, with less than 50% of dentists willing to accept patients participating in Medicaid or the CHIP program. The AP/St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that according to statistics from the state Department of Health and Family Services, only 23% of beneficiaries in the two programs saw a dentist between July 1999 and June 2000. In July 2000, only 42% of Wisconsin's 3,357 dentists, or about 1,410, "were Medicaid-certified and had seen at least one Medicaid patient in the previous year." And in five Wisconsin counties during fiscal year 2000, "there were at least 1,000 Medicaid [beneficiaries] for every Medicaid-certified dentist who accepted Medicaid patients" (Wyatt, AP/St. Paul Pioneer Press, 4/10).