Dental’s big shift

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s 10 essential health benefits have given brokers and agents plenty to chew on during the law’s implementation. While those benefits are intended to improve care covered under health plans across the nation, they have been shown to drive up the cost of some plans—a side effect largely unknown to many new plan purchasers thanks to the law’s subsidies—and has led to cases of coverage incongruity. For example, men are now required to pay for prenatal care. Childless individuals are required to pay for pediatric care. And people who don’t take pills have to pay for prescription coverage.

But even with all those covered areas, there’s a glaring omission, especially for workers who’ve been receiving health care benefits for years. PPACA doesn’t cover adult dental care, and the omission has garnered sharp criticism from benefits professionals, health care officials and dentists across the nation. “[PPACA] is a missed opportunity, and we have a long way to go in ensuring access to oral health for all Americans,” says Marko Vujicic, managing vice president of the American Dental Association’s Health Policy Research Center. “This is especially true for adults, who have experienced greater financial barriers to dental care in recent years.”