Dental Care Should Be Part of Universal Healthcare

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65. Thanks! An important post

This post is so important. So true that dental care must be included in health care if we hope our citizens to have any kind of a decent life. I know so many people who have some kind of health insurance but when it comes to dental care not even the most expensive insurance covers anything but cleaning and/or fillings. They cannot pay the thousands needed for extraction, dental implants, crowns, root canals, dentures, fillings that would save a tooth, gum decay. They suffer, cannot eat anything but soft food, do not smile much because they are embarrassed. If this was only a "cosmetic" problem but it is so much more. A few states have included some care under Medicaid but most haven't.

Also true of hearing impairments which isolate and demean people; hearing aids are into the thousands now. The same with glasses; Medicare covers glasses only after cataract surgery. If we cannot eat the food we need, cannot see to read, cannot have conversations with our friends and families we are not living healthy lives.