Colorado health advocates are renewing a push to make child dental care mandatory on the new state insurance exchange, after federal officials declared the benefits "essential" but "optional."
Dental-care policies will be offered on the state exchange opening in October, parallel to health-insurance offers, but there is no federal mandate to buy oral-health coverage.
Colorado advocates for underserved children and a coalition of oral-health experts want the state exchange to go further than the federal decision, made late last month. They note that Colorado has fallen behind on key oral-health measurements and that Gov. John Hickenlooper's administration has declared dental care one of the "10 Winnable" public-health battles.
"It's very important to the health of our children that if we have a mandated medical benefit, we also have a mandated dental benefit at the same time," said Karen Cody Carlson, executive director of Oral Health Colorado, a broad spectrum of providers and public- health activists. "We're working on several different avenues."
So far, the health-insurance exchange board has declined to go beyond the federal decision, emphasizing consumer choice rather than more state mandates.
Dental and vision plans will be offered with a separate price or bundled with medical plans that consumers see, but they don't have to buy dental coverage for kids, an exchange spokesman said.
Essential benefits that must be in all plans, federal officials have said, include items such as mental health, maternity, prescriptions and other care.
The number of Coloradans with no dental insurance jumped 17 percent in the three years before 2011, to 2.1 million kids, according to a Colorado Trust study. Some of those will benefit from the Medicaid expansion that is also part of 2014 health reforms.
Studies have predicted that about 240,000 uninsured residents will get health coverage through the Medicaid expansion in coming years. Children get dental benefits through Medicaid and CHP Plus, and the state is asking the legislature to add a $1,000 oral-health benefit for adults this year.
The state insurance exchange, currently building systems to begin signing up residents in October, has said it expects up to 150,000 people to join in the first year. Many of those will get federal tax subsidies available only through the exchange.
Part of the dental gap in Colorado is currently being filled by private foundations, including increased spending by Delta Dental.
The nonprofit dental insurer has amassed more surplus reserves than it needs for state minimums and has committed to spending $6 million in two years to give free insurance to 6,000 people.
Read more: Colorado advocates rush to save kid dental benefits on exchange - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22794704/colorado-advocates-rush-save-kid-dental-benefits-exchange#ixzz2O5TEB869
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