NY Medicaid Patients Win Dental Settlement, Expanding Coverage for 5 Million – The New York Times

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NY Medicaid Patients Win Dental Settlement, Expanding Coverage for 5 Million – The New York Times

Medicaid programs, which vary from state to state, are not required to cover dental care; several states do not. But under federal law, if a state Medicaid program does cover an optional category of care — such as dentistry, prescription drugs or optometry — it must cover all medically necessary care in that category.

The suit argued that dental health was essential not just to overall physical health but also to psychological well-being and the ability to find or keep a job.

“You need to have teeth to function in our society,” said Belkys Garcia, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society, which filed the suit. “It impacts everything in your life — your relationships, how people see themselves, how others see you.” Sign up for the New York Today Newsletter Each morning, get the latest on New York businesses, arts, sports, dining, style and more. Get it sent to your inbox.

For decades, Ms. Garcia said, New York’s coverage rules for Medicaid were “structured to pull your teeth rather than save them.” And because one of the main jobs of a tooth is to hold its neighbors in place, an extraction often has a domino effect: Losing teeth leads to losing more teeth.

NPR

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The history of May Day in America : NPR

May Day, celebrated by workers across the globe as International Labor Day, falls on May 1.

But you'd be forgiven if that's news to you. While the day traces its origins to an American laborers' fight for a shorter work day, the U.S. does not officially recognize International Labor Day.

Like other countries that mark Labor Days on different dates, the U.S. and Canada celebrate their Labor Day in September. 1A The History Of America's Fight For Fair Labor

U.S. resistance to celebrate International Labor Day — also called International Workers' Day — in May stems from a resistance to emboldening worldwide working-class unity, historians say.

"The ruling class did not want to have a very active labor force connected internationally," said Peter Linebaugh, author of The Incomplete, True, Authentic, and Wonderful History of May Day. "The principle of national patriotism was used against the principle of working-class unity or trade union unity."

Neighborhood Deprivation Index

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A series of maps showing how relatively deprived each New York State neighborhood based on Census tract.

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