An analysis released Wednesday by Government Accountability Office showed that 6.5 million US Medicaid children, aged 2 to 18, had untreated tooth decay, which is twice as much as children with private health insurance.

Medicaid is a federal and state health insurance program covering low-income, blind or disabled people.

“Dental disease remains a significant problem for children aged 2 through 18 in Medicaid,” the report concluded.

The report used data from two surveys made between 1999 and 2004 and found that 14.8 percent of Medicaid recipients said their children had not gotten necessary dental care because their dentist refused to accept Medicaid.

Also, only one in three children in Medicaid had received any dental care in the year before the survey was carried out and one in eight reportedly had never seen a dentist.

On the other hand, more than half of children with private health insurance had gotten dental care during the prior year.

GAO was asked to look at the situation of US Medicaid children after the death in 2007 of Deamonte Driver, a 12-year-old Maryland Medicaid patient whose mother could not find a dentist to treat his infected tooth.

“Clearly, the oral health care system failed this young man. All of us – practitioners, payers, parents and policymakers – need to come together and make the system work for the most vulnerable among us,” Dr. Jane S. Grover, first vice president of the American Dental Association, said Tuesday in testimony to the Committee on House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Domestic Policy.