Healthcare reform bill will improve children’s dental care

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Representatives from America’s biggest benefit provider, Delta Dental, have welcomed the passing of President Obama’s ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’.

The bill will dramatically change the structure of dental care for children and will provide a much more level playing field in terms of accessing affordable oral health care. Delta Dental’s president, Kim Volk said the new measures will mean that millions of children will receive the care they desperately need and have been missing out on up to this point because they don’t have insurance.

The new bill will recognise dental health as an integral component of general health and paediatric dental care will be provided by state insurance programmes but parents will still have the option of using independent providers if they wish to go down that route.

Currently, millions of children are missing out on even the most basic dental care, as they do not have insurance policies and cannot afford treatment. Many rely on free dental clinics, but these are often over-subscribed, so treatment cannot be guaranteed.

The new dental health measures have been included in the essential package that has been designed to come into play in 2014. President Obama is also planning to launch a much more comprehensive range of preventive measures, which will encourage parents and teachers to teach their children about good oral health from a young age and will offer children treatments, such as fluoride treatments and sealant programmes, which will help to protect their teeth and make them more resistant to decay. Preventive dentistry could save the government millions of dollars in the long-run, as well as improving national standards of dental health.

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