October 13th, 2009

Reports Kaiser Health News:

Pediatric dental care, long a concern of children’s health advocates, is poised to get a major boost with each of the Democratic health reform proposals.

“The silver lining of all this heated debate, for children at least, is that in almost every conversation, in every version of a bill, there’s some provision for children’s oral health,” said Amir Moursi, chair of the department of pediatric dentistry at New York University’s College of Dentistry.

Yet in a surprising twist, some insurance industry experts worry that the legislation may create unintended consequences and disruptions for adult and family dental coverage.

While he calls the children’s benefit “an unbelievable mark of progress,” Jeff Album, the vice president for public and government affairs for Delta Dental insurance company, fears that adults and employers may drop their dental coverage because of the legislation’s treatment of dental plans and taxation of insurance benefits.

Find out more at Kaiser.