Why Don't Medicare and Medicaid Cover Dental Health Services?

Dental symptoms can cause severe health problems. Yet, while dental insurance is seen by many as a luxury, medical insurance is widely considered to be essential. Born in the legislative advent of Medicare, which covers no dental costs, and Medicaid, which covers few, the medical-dental divide has created and exacerbated health inequity between those who can afford dental care and those who cannot. This article offers a brief visual and narrative history of how this happened and why dentistry exists outside medicine rather than as a specialty within it.