What would the effect of UHC be on Dentistry?

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There seems to be very few topic addressing this issue around here... the search I did came up with nothing recent.


What would the effects of a UHC bill (Universal insurance, not nationalized providers ala NHS) be on Dentistry?


Obviously the level of compensation would matter a lot here... Do you think dentistry would become increasingly corporatized? (As larger corporations are already equipped at dealing with masses of low-compensation patients, with many of them drawing a large portion of their customers from Medicaid)

How would the income of Dentists be effected?


*Raises flameshield (Stand strong, flameshield...)

 

[belle316]

There seems to be very few topic addressing this issue around here... the search I did came up with nothing recent.


What would the effects of a UHC bill (Universal insurance, not nationalized providers ala NHS) be on Dentistry?


Obviously the level of compensation would matter a lot here... Do you think dentistry would become increasingly corporatized? (As larger corporations are already equipped at dealing with masses of low-compensation patients, with many of them drawing a large portion of their customers from Medicaid)

How would the income of Dentists be effected?


*Raises flameshield (Stand strong, flameshield...)

From what I've read, there are no plans to include dentistry at all in the quest to ensure that everyone has health insurance. Its estimated that the cost of accomplishing this will be around $1 trillion over the next 10 years, so I doubt there would be even enough money to include dentistry to the extent that it would significantly affect private practice salaries.

Just look at Canada. When it comes to fiscal policies, they are far more liberal than the US and they don't even cover dentistry there.

As far as corporate dentistry, there have been multiple posts about why that model just doesn't work too well for dentistry. If you did a search, I'm pretty sure you could find them.

The major problem for dentistry in the next 2-3 decades is finding out a way to extend dentistry to those underserved and poor areas. A lot of people are against the advanced dental hygiene practitioners, but I think will could be a good thing if they are restricted to underserved areas and are generally supervised by dentist. If I recall correctly, that is how they will practice in MN. It would kill any calling for universal dental care, which would be horrible for the profession.

I think the outlook for dentistry seems to be pretty rosy for the next 20-30 years. But things change though.