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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.

1. Find your members of Congress
2. Tell them you want to keep your family dental coverage

Do your part to keep family dental coverage under dental coverage.

Three hours later, I was sitting in a sound proof booth looking at a camera with two “googley eyes” (like the ones on that stack of money you’ll save with Geico) trying to image the people that were talking in my ear as they sat in New York and California.

Of course, I looked like a deer in the headlights, but did remember a few key points.

• Health reform requires children’s dental coverage to be included in medical insurance.  For 132 million Americans with family dental benefits that means they can’t keep their kids under their dental coverage.
• Some 40 million kids will be pulled out of their parents dental policies and covered under a medical plan with no guarantee that the dentist they now see will be in the medical plan or that the benefits will be as robust as they are under dental policies.
• Medical insurers don’t cover dental benefits today so they will have to build or buy systems that dental insurers have now.  That means more cost for the same or less dental coverage.
• And there’s a trickle-down effect on adults.  Because households without children are 60% less likely to have dental coverage, there could be a significant reduction in adults with coverage.  And since adults without coverage don’t see the dentist as often, their oral health will suffer.

Of course there were many things that we couldn’t get to.   Maybe I can add them to the next 4 minute interview, but– with better make-up and clothes .

Evelyn F. Ireland, CAE, is a mother of two and Executive Director of the National Association of Dental Plans. She is recognized as an expert in the insurance industry by ‘Insurance Newscast Expert.’

On Sunday, I was listening to the radio when another Senator repeated the promise that “Americans can keep their current coverage and doctors.” I found myself screaming at the radio, “just not your dental or vision coverage!” Aware my outburst did nothing beyond frighten the other drivers on the road; I knew I had to take to the blogosphere.

I don’t want to be an alarmist, but I have devoted a lot of resources to figuring out how the 1000’s of pages of health care reform bills work. I know there are unexpected surprises in these bills that Americans should know about.  Whenever I share what I know with my family and friends, they say “Really? Why?”

Now I want to know what you think about 3 things the House version of health care reform will do:

1. If you are one of the 132 million Americans with dental benefits for you and your kids, you won’t be able to keep your kids under your dental benefits policy with your coverage.  This means your children won’t have the same policy, and may have a different dentist. (Same goes for vision if you have vision coverage).
2. If you don’t have kids, you will pay for dental and vision coverage for kids up to age 21 as part of your medical policy.
3. You will pay more for the dental part of your health coverage than you do today.

What do you think?

Evelyn F. Ireland, CAE, is a mother of two and Executive Director of the National Association of Dental Plans. She is recognized as an expert in the insurance industry by ‘Insurance Newscast Expert.’

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