Recently, I found myself in a quandary. My husband and I qualify for Marketplace Insurance, but our three children qualify for Medicaid.

Common sense would assume that one would have the choice between Medicaid and subsidized Marketplace Insurance. However, the reality in Michigan is that the law doesn’t allow parents to choose Medicaid or subsidized Marketplace Insurance for their children. Some would rejoice in “free health care” for their children but for me it was a matter of quality.

While our family had had no problems with the medical side of Michigan’s Medicaid, the Healthy Kids Dental Program left a lot to be desired.

The Healthy Kids Dental Program only pays for network providers. It doesn’t give parents the option of taking their children to an out-of-network provider and paying the difference between what HKD paid and what the out-of-network provider fees were.

This was troubling to me because if my children qualified for subsidized marketplace insurance, we would have the option of finding an insurance plan that would cover out-of-network providers. The only reason why my children were on HKD was because their ages qualified them for this very unequal health program.

In December 2021, I discovered that I, as the parent of three Medicaid recipients, had the right to file a complaint against MDHHS with the HHS Office of Civil Rights, which I did. Medicaid recipients often find themselves trapped in a health care system that is unequal to private insurance with little hope of improvement.

Call it a mother’s “Hail Mary” pass to get her children — and 50% of Michigan’s children — better dental care.

Tracy Asanuma

Iron Mountain