Toothache

continued

of your life," says the single mother of three.

A few years ago, Cooper had a run of bad luck. After she was injured in a nasty fall, she lost her job and had to live on unemployment benefits. Then, in 2008, she moved from Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor. She was delighted to see her two younger children thriving in their new schools. She figured her luck had turned.

But last May, Governor Granholm issued an executive order that eliminated Medicaid payments for dental work for adults--except for emergencies, such as swelling and extreme pain, that would require an extraction. Cooper, who had qualified for Medicaid just before the order was issued, can't afford to pay anyone to save her bad tooth. She's still jobless while training to be an X-ray technician at Washtenaw Community College.

Almost 24,000 Washtenaw County adults depend on Medicaid. Even before Granholm cut off funding, though, it was hard to find a dentist who'd accept it. "Medicaid reimbursement doesn't even cover the cost of opening the door and turning on the lights," says local dentist Dalbert Fear, known for his generosity in treating needy patients. Still, Medicaid paid the bills for about 25 percent of patients at the U-M School of Dentistry and 30 percent at the downtown Community Dental Center (a nonprofit funded by U-M).