The Medicare statute currently excludes nearly all dental coverage for the 60 million older adults and people with disabilities who rely on the program. This dental exclusion disproportionately impacts populations of color, who suffer adverse oral health outcomes at significantly higher rates than white older adults.

Justice in Aging’s new issue brief, Adding a Dental Benefit to Medicare: Addressing Racial Disparities, examines how adding an oral health benefit to Medicare would address disparities in access to care and oral health outcomes based on race, and puts forth additional policy options that can be implemented to further advance oral health equity.

This issue brief is the first in a series of papers that will examine how to address disparities in access to care and oral health outcomes among certain groups of Medicare beneficiaries, including people of color, people with disabilities, older adults with dementia and cognitive impairments, and nursing facility residents.