Oversight Agency Blasts California’s ‘Dysfunctional’ Dental Program For Poor
California health officials are "falling disastrously short" of providing dental care for low-income Californians, a report by a bipartisan commission says.
Capital Public Radio:
State Report Slams Denti-Cal
A California oversight board is calling the state dental program for low-income people “baffling, frustrating,” and “harmful.” The Little Hoover Commission writes in a report released Friday that outdated regulations and bureaucracy create “high levels of havoc” for the 13 million Californians enrolled in Denti-Cal. (Bradford, 4/1)
California Healthline:
Denti-Cal Is Blasted By Oversight Commission
The program, Denti-Cal, “ranks among state government’s greatest deficiencies,” said the report by the Little Hoover Commission, a statutorily independent oversight agency. The program falls “disastrously short in providing dental care to a third of California’s population and more than half of its children.” A more vivid description comes from Pedro Nava, the commission’s chairman: “In California we have kids’ teeth rotting out of their heads,” he told CHL. “That’s utterly inexcusable.” The report makes grim reading. California faces an “epidemic of tooth disease in which toddlers by the thousands have mouthfuls of cavities, children and adults are plagued with toothaches, whole counties have no Denti-Cal providers and families don’t understand basic preventative dental care,” it said. (Gorn, 4/1)