Johns Hopkins researchers study Medicare beneficiaries, dental care access: 5 insights

In an investigation of how Medicare beneficiaries access healthcare, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore found that insurance status is the biggest predictor of whether a person receives dental care.

Here are five of their findings:

1. A total of 49 million Medicare beneficiaries do not have dental insurance.

2. When considering those who had incomes just over the federal poverty level, 65 percent of those with dental insurance had a dental visit in the last year, compared to only 27 percent of those without dental insurance.

3. High-income beneficiaries were three times more likely to have received dental care in the last year when compared to low-income beneficiaries; however, high-income beneficiaries often paid a significant amount of their bills out-of-pocket.

4. Medicare beneficiaries report spending an average of $427 on dental care over the past year, 77 percent of which was out-of-pocket. Dental expenses encompassed 14 percent of Medicare beneficiaries' out-of-pocket health spending.

5. Those over 65 years of age faired particularly poorly in dental care access. Only 12 percent of these beneficiaries had any form of dental insurance; fewer than half had a dental visit in the last year.

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