Dental Insurance Articles
How Dental Insurance Will Change Due To Health Care Regulations
2010-12-05
The new health care reform will change dental insurance regulations in ways that will affect certain demographics more than others. How these changes will be implemented is still fuzzy; details are being worked out. However, the following changes will come about one way or another as a result of the passage of the health care reform bill:
Low Income Families Will Receive More Dental Care Options
Low income families will have access to private and public dental plans. QHPs (Qualified Health Plans) will be made available for children and low income families, providing affordable or subsidized preventive dental care as part of the health coverage.
Children Will Receive More Dental Care
One of the main thrusts of the health care reform is to provide preventative health care to children. School-based clinics, funded through government grants, will be providing dental care to children who do not have dental insurance. Dentists who treat children will also see government subsidies or assistance in one form or another directly related to treatment of children, especially treatment of children in low income families. How will this affect dental insurance companies? Dental insurance companies worry that if children can get free or reduced-price dental care through government sources, fewer families will buy family dental insurance through private insurance companies.
Dental Insurance Plans Will Accept More Applicants
Since insurance companies will have to accept applicants with pre-existing conditions, some sort of changes will have to happen in regards to costs of premiums and caps of benefit payouts so insurance companies can continue to be profitable. So while more people will receive dental coverage, it is still to be seen how insurance companies will deal with the limitations of trying to remain profitable while accepting clients who will be more expensive to cover since they have pre-existing conditions.
Most Employers Will Still Offer Dental Insurance Plans
At first dental insurance companies were afraid that employers would stop offering dental insurance to employees, forcing dental insurance companies to compete with whatever options the government comes up with. This is because the Health Care Reform Bill taxes all insurance companies a whopping 40% tax on all high-end insurance plans, making it expensive for employers to offer certain dental plans. However, with the passage of the Reconciliation Bill, dental plans will be exempt from the tax, meaning many insurance companies will be able to keep plans as is without fear of being dumped by employers.
The long term effects of health care reform are yet to be seen. The new dental insurance regulations will change how dental insurance companies set and price policies, but the details won't be worked out for quite a while.