COHI addresses the Governor's Proposed Dental Cuts in the Hartford Courant

"One of the most controversial proposals in Rowland's plan would eliminate state-paid preventive dental care for adults on Medicaid. State dental insurance would no longer pay for routine checkups, cleanings, fillings, crowns or root canal treatment. But low-income patients would still be covered for dental emergencies, tooth removal and dentures.

"Thousands of Connecticut adults already can't eat or sleep properly, can't do their work, can't smile at a job interview, because they're suffering from untreated oral disease," said Robert Slate, executive director of a group representing dentists and others advocating for more widespread dental care.

Slate said the cut will prompt thousands of low-income senior citizens to end up "in expensive emergency rooms with horribly damaged mouths." The low-income residents, he said, are already suffering because there is a shortage of dentists willing to accept the state's low reimbursement rate. Removing access to preventive care altogether will increase, not reduce costs, he warned."

From the Hartford Courant, February 5, 2004.