7 March 2013
DENTAL: Basic dental health care needs to be provided by all health plans in the Affordable Care Act.
By Amy Wang, Staff Writer
Admit it: you remember being a child, sneaking candies behind your parents’ backs, until one day you bit down hard on a candy and ouch. Next thing you knew, you were at the dentist’s office, where they informed you that you had a cavity. What followed was not pretty—fillings rarely are—but it was necessary, or that cavity could have turned ugly. Unfortunately, not everyone gets cavities fixed; in fact, not everyone even has the money to get them checked.
The Affordable Care Act, starting in 2014, will ensure that “health plans… offer a comprehensive package of items and services, known as essential health benefits” (Healthcare.gov). Among these essential health benefits are pediatric services, which include oral and vision care.
Currently, not all health plans have an ensured pediatric health plan. The administration has also said it will allow health plans to be certified without the dental coverage, so long as a purchasable, stand-alone pediatric dental plan is available as an add-on.
In short, a family could purchase a health plan without the pediatric dental coverage, free of any penalties. Due to the presently confusing process, it would be easier for a family to simply do without the coverage when signing up. Families would have to pay out of their pockets for dentist check-ups, which could be costly.
Low-income families are already less likely to bring their children to dentists. Without pediatric dental coverage included in health plans, this number will stay low, and dental health problems will intensify. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “nearly 68 percent of people age 16 to 19 have decay in their permanent teeth.” If oral health is taken care of and monitored at an earlier age, the likeliness of tooth decay would drop in older teenagers.
According to the California Dental Association, tooth decay is the number one chronic health problem of children. The longer cavities are left untreated, the worse they become. Untreated dental decay can become serious enough to require emergency treatment, with expenses that can cost over $20,000. Other effects caused by poor oral health include pain and distraction, and sometimes it can even be linked to problems with self-esteem and speech.
As of now, the Affordable Care Act is still undergoing changes, and pediatric dental care is one of the problems at hand. Hopefully by the time the act is finished, the entire process will be much simpler for parents to understand. There should be a pediatric dental care in all health plans that provides the bare minimums necessary for dental work, such as regular check-ups and financial assistance for extras such as fillings.
Let’s put smiles on all the children’s faces.