Affordable Dental Benefits for Children with Health Law

We all read and hear about the coverage of the Affordable Care Act but they all talked about health insurance benefits. There’s little known on its impact on dental coverage. The fact is Obamacare requires some health insurance plans to provide affordable dental benefits for children. Around 1.7 million kids from across the nation will gain access to dental benefits because of ACA.

The lawmakers included the requirement for dental coverage for children because they recognized dental disease as the most common chronic disease for children. Five children suffer from dental disease for every child who has asthma. They included the Essential Health Benefit so that all children in the United States get dental care.

Some states allow insurance companies to offer family plans so that families can buy their dental benefits. Delta Dental provides plans with and without the child dental care benefit. Consumers must contact their dental insurance providers to find out what they have to offer. Some states let dental insurance providers to sell adult-only benefits.

Before ACA was made into a law, it was hard to find an affordable dental plan if the employer didn’t provide one. At present, marketplaces allow consumers to compare plans and buy dental care coverage in one place. Dental insurance are optional and they can be part of the medical plan or purchased as a different plan.

The ACA navigators can assist consumers to make the right decision when it comes to insurance coverage. It is important to include dental insurance to prevent dental disease, which can amount to thousands of dollars. It can be prevented with regular checkups and the dentist can detect a cavity even before the patient feels the pain. A yearly visit to the dentist is enough to prevent dental disease that can result to more severe problems in the future.

Photo by Brendan John (UCLA School of Dentistry) [CC-BY-3.0], undefined