Report: Dental costs a burden for many Midwestern families

Apr 28, 2009

A new report issued by the Access Project and Brandeis University concludes that the costs of dental care represent more of a financial burden on families and individuals than has been previously recognized.

In a survey of family farm and ranch operators in seven Great Plains states, 75% of households reported having dental out-of-pocket costs. The report, "The Cost of Dental Care and the Impact of Dental Insurance Coverage," found that families on average spent $873 out-of-pocket annually on dental care, exceeding their $700 average out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs. The amount spent on dental care constituted more than a quarter (27%) of families' overall out-of-pocket healthcare costs.

When factoring in the estimated cost of dental premiums, having dental insurance did not result in a major reduction in average costs. However, it did have significant benefits: Having dental insurance made dental expenses more predictable, made it less likely that people delayed care, and made it less likely that healthcare costs contributed to people's financial problems.

However, less than half (42%) of the farm and ranch operators surveyed had dental insurance, significantly less than the 60% of Americans who have such coverage. These low rates of dental coverage reflect the fact that farmers and ranchers are much more likely than the population at large to purchase health insurance in the individual, nongroup market. Only 12% of survey respondents purchasing in this market had dental insurance, compared to nearly two-thirds of those who obtained insurance coverage through off-farm or ranch employment.

"Whether looked at through the financial lens of medical debt or the health lens of access to effective treatment, we get the same picture," said Kim Moore, president of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund in Kansas. "The costs of dental care are exceeding families' resources to pay them and resulting in delayed care and financial burden."

The Access Project's report is the fourth in a series of issue briefs based on a 2007 survey of farm and ranch operators in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The Access Project and its partners at Brandeis University and the University of North Dakota School of Medicine's Center for Rural Health contracted with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service to survey more than 2,000 noncorporate farm and ranch operators (those operating as sole proprietors or partnerships).

The report illustrates that dental costs are a burden for many families and that these costs can be a barrier to needed dental care, the researchers noted. The Access Project urges policymakers to consider including oral healthcare issues in the upcoming national healthcare reform dialogue.

"We need to remind policymakers that the mouth is part of the body," Moore said.