Dentistry and Obamacare

The hottest topic around Capitol Hill and around the country is the integration of the Affordable Healthcare Act commonly known as Obamacare. While our congressmen shamelessly fight over whether or not Obamacare will ever go into effect, enrollment for insurance has quietly started as of October 1^st.  Our patients have begun to ask questions regarding their dental insurance and how it would be affected under the Obamacare healthcare provisions.

Dental insurances plans have taken a turn for the worse in the last 5 years.  In an effort to save money, many companies have scaled back or dropped dental plans all together. Plans offered to individuals have increased in cost while significantly cutting back benefits and options on which providers you may choose.  Companies would often pay less than promised to the patient for dental procedures. In fact, in many cases we have advised our patients to not get dental insurance and instead opt to pay “out-of-pocket”. 

Dental insurance is indeed affected by Obamacare.  Since universal healthcare is such a new concept in this country, there are many details that are very fuzzy right now.  In addition, as more states begin to run their own exchanges, more healthcare insurance companies will offer more and better benefits under the state’s exchanges. So nothing is set in stone.

For our Valencia patients and patients around the country, there is little doubt that Obamacare is a good thing in terms of dental insurance.  Not only is it a good thing, it has the potential to be the best thing to ever happen to dental care in this country.  Under Obamacare, dental insurance will now be offered to all.  You are allowed to pick if you want the coverage or not and what degree of coverage you wish to have.  But it is at least an option for all Americans.  Because the pool of people enrolling in dental coverage stands to increase, this means your cost of dental insurance will probably go down in the future.

In the state of California, dental insurance is mandated for everyone under the age of 19.  This is great news for kids because it will mean they will have access to insured dental care.  For adults, the option for dental insurance will be given to everyone.  However, adults are not required to purchase dental insurance for themselves.

We will be keeping a close eye on the changes to the dental insurance plans under Obamacare and specifically highlighting the best plans for our patients.  The American Dental Association (ADA) also offer a very unique interpretation of Obamacare which is definitely worth checking out.

Go Dental, Your Valencia Dentist