Dental Insurance

Remote Area Medical free clinic continues 89.3 KPCC

29.04.10

Updated 9:44 p.m. | Permalink

'Now I'm in a position to help folks ...'

KPCC's Alex Cohen spoke with Howard Kahn, the chief executive officer of LA Care Health Plan, about how the budget crisis has affected community clinics:

"The clinics, so far, have been more affected by the downturn in the economy and the number of people that are uninsured that need the services," he said Thursday. "So they've had an increase in demand. The budget crisis hasn't hit those clinics as strongly, except in one big area, which is adult dental services.

"They eliminated adult dental services last year in the medical program and it wasn't that great of a benefit to begin with so now there are adults all throughout Los Angeles County who have no way of getting dental services."

Khan described it as a "a health crisis."

"It's a health crisis because when you have dental problems it leads to medical problems. It leads to infections. It leads to fevers. It can lead to very serious illnesses.

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