The Good, Bad and Ugly of Oral Health Reform
Like most of you I have been consumed by my own priorities since the last post in mid-September—mostly work. And there is both good news and bad news to report for oral health.
The Good News (always first, right?)—The Senate Finance Committee unanimously agreed that you should be able to keep your kids in your dental plan with you. They also agreed that Americans who are getting coverage through the Exchange should be able to buy a separate dental plan for their kids focused on oral health coverage if they want t0. So S 1796 will let you keep your dental coverage and dentist.
The Bad News—The House version of health reform that came out last week—HR 3962—dropped an amendment that protected the separate family dental policies of 132 million Americans. Our last ditch efforts to get the provision restored before the bill comes to the floor for a vote this Friday failed.
The Ugly News: Bottom line, if the House bill is the one to pass, 45 million kids covered on their family dental policies will be stripped from their parents’ policies and put into their medical plan. And there is no guarantee that the medical plan will include the dentist your kids now see.
So, today I am bummed as the promise that “you can keep our coverage and providers” is in jeopardy when it comes to your dental plans.
What can you do to help prevent this from happening? It’s a simple 2-step process.
- Find your members of Congress
- Tell them you want to keep your family dental coverage
Do your part to keep family dental coverage under dental coverage.
Posted by admin on November 4th, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized
Tags :: dental, Health Care Reform, insurance, oral health