As I've written before, I live in a subsidized building for seniors. I have encountered quite a few people without teeth, with one or two teeth, with dentures that don't work. Full disclosure means I have to tell you that while I still have my teeth, I have not seen a dentist in six years because I can't afford it. At my last dental appointment, they told me I need over 6k worth of dental surgery and reconstruction done.
Clearly this is not going to happen. I suppose eventually my teeth will get to the point where they will have to be pulled due to some sort of infection. I think that might be covered under Medicare as a medical procedure.
That means I will be one of the folks here who have no teeth because Medicare definitely does not cover dentures.
I have spoken with my state (IL) representative who told me that the state will not pass any funding for dental care for seniors because there is no money, and charged me with coming up with alternative ideas to help seniors get dental care.
I have been thinking about this now for six months and all I can come up with is a barter system with dentists.
Problem is that most of the seniors in the building do not have any skills with which to barter. I suppose if a dentist needed a receptionist replacement for a short period of time, a very small group here might be able to provide that. If they needed training material or a business flow assessment, I could do that.
But in general there are just a gazillion reasons why that won't work.
I know this site has many smart folks who might offer new ideas to solve this problem. So please, can ya'll put on your thinking caps and offer viable suggestions I can present to my state rep?
Because I can't think of anything to ask in a poll, please put your suggestions in the comments section.
3:19 PM PT: Thanks to everyone who made suggestions. I promise to consider each one and see if they might work. As noted in the comments, Medicare does not cover dental work, eye care, or hearing, and all three of those conditions are endemic in the senior population. When people say they want seniors to retire with dignity, they never really think about or consider all three areas.