Investigators from Harvard University Target Managed Care (Fluctuating State Medicaid Dental Coverage: Asymmetric Impact of Benefit Cuts and Expansions, 2010-21): Managed Care

2026 MAR 11 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Researchers detail new data in Managed Care. According to news reporting originating from Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Medicaid adult dental coverage is an optional benefit that states often add or remove in response to budgetary pressures. The effect of these fluctuations on access to dental services is unclear.”

Funders for this research include National Institute on Minority Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Commonwealth Fund.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Harvard University, “Using 2010-21 Health and Retirement Study data and a dynamic difference-indifferences event study, we examined the effects of removing versus adding Medicaid adult dental benefits among adults ages 50-64 with income up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Eliminating benefits was associated with increased dental uninsurance (60.1 percentage points) and any out-of-pocket spending in the past two years (20.2 percentage points), as well as decreased dental visits in the past two years (-37.4 percentage points) and edentulism (complete loss of all natural teeth; -13.4 percentage points). Expanding benefits was associated with decreased dental uninsurance (-40.7 percentage points) and any out-of-pocket spending (-36.5 percentage points), as well as increased dental visits (22.1 percentage points) and edentulism (16.9 percentage points). Both changes were associated with increased unawareness of dental coverage (11.7 and 33.0 percentage points, respectively). Several effects persisted up to eight years, indicating that Medicaid dental policy shifts have lasting implications.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “These findings underscore the importance of stable Medicaid dental coverage, particularly as Congress and states weigh large-scale Medicaid cuts.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Fluctuating State Medicaid Dental Coverage: Asymmetric Impact of Benefit Cuts and Expansions, 2010-21. Health Affairs, 2026;45(2):200-208. Health Affairs can be contacted at: Project Hope, 7500 Old Georgetown Rd, Ste 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133, USA.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Hawazin W. Elani, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02138, United States. Additional authors for this research include Benjamin D. Sommers, Ichiro Kawachi, Meredith B. Rosenthal and Renuka Tipirneni.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2025.00454. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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